Sixteen My Way
by jersey27
Summary: Steph is still working at Rangerman, Joe left out of town, Ranger is going to need another favor. How far will he ask her to go for a job?
1. Chapter 1

Spoilers . . . . I am making an attempt to pick up after Finger Licking Fifteen. Somethings might be hinted to so be ware.

It has been two and half months since Ranger asked me to come back to work for him to help save his business. At the end of the day when the mystery was solved I stopped at Joe's place. After sharing some chips and dip I thought we might be on a way back to the "on stage" of our relationship if only we could avoid the constant arguing over everything. Maybe we are to much alike to make it work out. That was until Joe's pager went off and he was packing to leave town on an undercover job that I could once again know nothing about. So I have to say it was a good thing that we left things in the "off stage".

So it has been almost 4 months since I have had a social orgasm considering we were on the outs for about a month before he left. But I have been too busy to even realize it, well at least not thinking about it it every second of every day.

The other man in my life is Ranger. He said I could continue working for Rangeman, the 9-5 hours are not the greatest but it comes with a steady paycheck and health benefits so it is a good thing. I am still a bounty hunter for my cousin Vinnie but I mainly have been using the Rangeman resources to find more information on my skips and rounding them up on weekends or occasionally on an evening if I happen to get a tip that one has been seen out on the town. But since it is getting closer to Christmas, the colder weather seems to be keeping the skips in line. But the extra money has helped me pay off all my credit card bills and I am up to date on my rent, and I have some food in my cabinets not that I eat at home that often. I have been catching lunch and even dinner sometimes at work, Ella's cooking even if it is healthy is much better than attempting to cook or having to deal with my parents. Plus with Mom's finals coming up it is like a war zone at their house.

Even though I have been back working for Rangeman the last almost 3 months it feels like I am seeing Ranger a lot less these days. He has been in and out of the office alot. In the beginning it was meeting with customers due to the scare of all the break-ins. But then it seemed that he was in Miami alot. I am not sure if was for business or pleasure. The few times I seen him he seems tired and stressed. About a month ago he got back into town and I was treated to the 2am visit. I did not realize how much I missed them til he was not around to have them. He did not say any, but he looked exhausted. I pushed the covers down on the other side of my bed, stuck my hand out for him and told him to sleep. When I woke at eight the next morning he was still in bed with me and even more shocking was he was still sleeping. I was curled around him with my head on his shoulder and his arms wrapped around my waist. It was only maybe five minutes later he work up. I asked if everything was alright, and told him I would help him any way I could all he had to do was ask. He said he was okay for now and he would let me know also that he missed me. This was stated as he pushed a curl behind my ear.

Besides running into Ranger a few times in the office I only had one other major visit with him. This time in his bed. I had been working alot of hours that week. I had worked my 8 hour days all week, caught 4 skips, and did three distraction jobs for the guys. So by the 3pm on the following Monday I was not feeling so hot. I told Tank I was going to go home and lay down. I headed back to the elevator and had my keys out. I was barely able to keep my eyes open so I sent the elevator up to seven instead. I figured I could lay down for a few hours and hopefully feel better to drive home then. I made it to Ranger's bed, removed my black cargo pants, pulled one of Ranger's tshirts over my head and was out before I could get under the covers. I woke up a few hours later with a killer headache, runny nose and achy all over. I went to the bathroom to relieve myself, than found some aleve in the kitchen cabinet and was right back in bed. I figured it was safer to stay then risk heading back to my apartment.

The next time I work up it was about 5 in the morning and I was very confused. There was a warm body wrapped around me, my head was still hurting but no where near as bad as the first time. I was covered in a fine sheen of sweat. I easied out of bed heading to the bathroom this time to shower the sweat away and if it could help lessen the pounding in my head the better. A half an hour later I was wrapped in a white towel and finger combing my hair. After a few minutes I figured it was pointless because I was going back to bed. I headed to the dresser and pulled out another one of Ranger's tshirts, slipping it on over my towel and then letting the towel drop to the floor. I then went and crawled back into bed. Ranger was still sleeping and pulled me closer to him and wrapped his arms around me again. If I was feeling better my hormones might have won out in this situation and started something but unfortunately I was back to sleep within a few minutes.

I woke again the next time when my bed started to move. I protested though. Still half asleep I started burrowing deeper into the bed, but this bed apparently was actually Ranger. I could feel him chuckling silently, to get him back I brought my lips up slightly and rubbed them against his neck then processed to place gently kisses along his jaw bone while he was slightly distracted. I don't normally ignitate things between us, lately I have been standing back trying to determine if it is worth putting my heart on the line. The thing I realized is that it has been on the line for a while I just never wanted to admit it. Still moving along his jaw my lips found his and we shared a very intimate kiss. We both let up some and it left us inches apart just looking at each other. I think we each had a million thoughts running through our heads at that precise moment.  
Ranger broke the silence by asking how I was feeling as he edged out of bed. I thought about lying but knew there was no point. After a few minutes of pointless talk Ranger said he had a favor to ask. I propted myself up soom so I can look at him better. The last favor he ask was for me to come back to work for him and help him save the business so I was not sure what kind of favor this would be.

Ranger pulled on some sweats and a tshirt. He looked hesitant.  
"Ranger what ever it is, just ask, you know that I have never told you "no" well with the exception of going to a safe house"  
"I know Babe, that is why I am hesitant, I don't want you to feel like you have to say "yes".

"The reason I have been in Miami so often the last few months is because of Julie."  
"Oh God, is everything alright. She is not hurt is she? Steph ask practically jumping out of bed like that would allow her to help Julie any faster.

Ranger grabbed her arm to help steady Steph as she was a little dizzy from not feeling so well and jumping up so fast. He pulled her down on his lap in one of the side chairs.

"Babe relax, Julie is fine, well for the most part. She has been acting out, and seems her grades have dropped from A's to D's and F's. Ron and Rachel were concerned so we sent Julie has been seeing a counselor of sorts. We believe that she is having some side affects from the kidnapping from last year, and either something triggered a suppressed memory or possibly a delayed response. So I have been flying down because after a few months of counseling on her own she is not showing any progress and I have been sitting in on some of the sessions along with Ron and Rachel. The counselor thinks that she might relate and talk some if you attended some of the sessions also since you were with Julia in the trailor as well as in your apartment. Ron and Rachael weren't there so they can not relate, and I was only there for a few minutes."  
"Ranger of course I will help, why didn't you ask sooner? Also don't think that I did not notice that you strung together more than 3 words there."

"Babe"

"Ranger"

Ranger sighs. Probably would be good to head down in the beginning of next month. Julie has spring break and a class trip which Ron and Rachael are taking her away for a week or so to see if that helps. Plus it will be after the holidays. The Miami office has been under staffed and have been having some problems so I have been spend my days and some evenings there when I have been in town trying to help out. You would be able to continue doing searches in Miami, we can develop a system for you to do the Trenton office ones and what ever you can get done in Miami during the day. This way you are still bring in a pay check. Just so you know it might be a month or two that you would be in Miami, would that be a problem?

Steph bit her lip thinking. Ranger has done so much for me over the years, he is a friend, possibly one of my best friends and this is his daughter. It is not like anything is tying me down in Trenton right now.

"No there is no problem, I said I would help, and I will do what ever I can to help Julie and you"

"Thanks Babe, it means alot, now how about we get up and get ready for work. I have a few cases I need check in on that we seem to be running a problem with"


	2. Chapter 2

So as the week went on I was back to work going full speed. I still was feeling some of the affects of last week but everyday seemed a little better. Maybe going to Miami would be a good thing. I would be able to get some much needed sun, and hopefully relax some too. It seemed that the entire office was busy. I heard some of the guys talking over the last month and half about how the Rangeman had picked up quite a number of new cases. Everyone had a heavier work load. I did not really hear anyone complaining, it seemed they were more grateful that we were not losing accounts due to the break in incident. I had even been picking up some of the slack. Not only was I doing my normal searches, working as an extra set of eyes on some cases but I was now also doing some of the necessary paperwork that accompanied the everyday jobs.

Ranger and the core team had been meeting in the conference room going over cases all week. It seemed that they were going round in circles in regards to one really important case for Rangeman and not getting anywhere. Due to case they were all very moody. Everyone was walking on shells.

So towards the end of the week I finally could not avoid the hungry beast known as my stomach anymore and headed to the break room to grab something to eat. Lester was the only one in the break room when I entered. We both nodded at each other and I continued onto the fridge. I grabbed a turkey wrap and a bottle of water and took a seat at the table across from Lester.

After taking a few bites I looked up and asked how the case was going? "Are you making any progress?"

"Not good beautiful, we seem to be butting heads."

"Want to run it by me, sometimes it is something simple, you might just need an extra set of eyes or ears" Steph responded

"One of the new cases we signed a contract with the government requires for a married couple"

Steph pondered that for a minute, then finally responded "Okay, this would not the first time that Rangeman has sent in a couple pretending to be a married, right?"

"The problem is that this time is a little different. It has to be real. There needs to be a public engagement, a wedding, the couple would be required to live together. It has to be real in all senses of the word. The parents and friends as well as the public would have to all believe that it is real. There can not be any questioning thoughts that this was staged or not real. So as I said it is alittle more complicated. The couple is not needed for a few months but since it is going to require so much prep work we need to get it finalized now."

"Okay so I can see the dilemma, who are your candidates?"

"Well, (pulse) it has to be one of the core team. That would be Ranger, Tank, Bobby or Me. So the problem is that everyone knows that Tank is not with Lula anymore, and not to be mean but I am not sure if she is would be able to pull off the requirements of the job. Tank is also so stuck on those damn cats I am not sure if any female would take him seriously. Bobby can not commit to the job because he is in the process of finishing up some required refresher courses to keep his certifications valid. So that only leaves Ranger and me. And my reasoning is that I am so not giving up my bachelor's lifestyle." Lester replied.

"Yeah I am not sure if anyone would take you getting married seriously. You are such a player. How many girls have you dated in the last two weeks?"

"Hey are you calling me a Slut?" Lester faked a hurt look.

"So anyway that only leaves Ranger and I am not sure if he is taking it that well" Lester stated

Steph bit her lip thinking about that statement. Finally replying, "So you mean to tell me that Ranger would be willing to get married just for a job"

"Yeah I guess he is because when we all left the conference room to take a much needed break, he was muttering something about "having to move someday up earlier than he expected"

Steph was watching Lester's animated face as he was mimicking Ranger. That was until he got to that last statement. All of a sudden Steph froze and when Lester looked up he noticed that her face looked pale like all the blood drained it. Steph sat down the sandwich that she had made it half way through and told Lester that she just remembered she was suppose to be somewhere. She pushed back the chair so fast that it tilted back and fell on the floor. She never stopped to pick it up.

Lester was trying to figure out what just happened. He shrugged his shoulders and reached over to pick up the chair.

Meanwhile, Steph hit her cubicle, grabbed her bag and was down the stairs and exiting the garage before anyone took notice.

Steph was not sure if she was breathing or not. She was flying down the interstate not realizing how fast she was going. All she could think of was that Ranger was going to get married. Ranger was going to get married. Her hands tightened on the wheel a little tighter. After driving for about a half hour Steph finally slowed down and looked around trying to figure out where she was at. The knot in her stomach was still tight. A million different thoughts were running through her head. "My life does not come with a ring, or go back to Joe, I am not family material." By now Stephanie was parked on the side of main road in what appeared to be a few towns over. She hit her hand on the steering wheel while tears finally leaked from her eyes. Whispering out loud, "He is not suppose to marry someone else."

Steph wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. There is nothing she could do about it. It was his life. A sign finally caught Steph's eyes. "Come in and work out your Frustration" It was in bold letters. She shrugged her shoulders and decide what would it hurt to look around. She got out of her car, locked the doors and entered what appeared to be a store front. Not knowing what to expect she paused just inside the doorway and took the place in. It appeared to be possibly a gym. Taking another step still looking around caused her not to notice the hot guy that approach her.  
"Can I help you" He said.

"Uh Umm I saw the sign out front about Frustration"

"Sure not a problem, come right in." He started walking to the far corner of the room. There were only 3 or 4 people in the entire place.

He stopped in front of a punching bag, bent down and grabbed two red glove looking items. Steph was distracted by his ass as he bent over. He stood back up and told her to place her pocketbook near the wall on the shelf, and then reached out for one of her hands. He pushed the gloves on and tied them around the wrist. Before she realized it she was positioned in front of the bag.  
"Hit it" he said.

Steph reached out her arm and touched the bag with the end of glove.

"No don't pet the bag, I said HIT IT"

Her arm shot out and stuck the bag.  
"Again" he said

Steph continued hitting the bag. She no longer needed to be told to hit the bag. She was using both arms striking out at the bag. Some time later, he instructed her to use her legs and feet and to kick the bag. Steph finally felt too exhausted to keep hitting the bag. She slowed down and finally backed away from the bag. She was covered in sweat. Some curls had escaped from her ponytail and stuck to the side of her face and down the back of her neck. Her breath was coming out heavy, almost panting. Once she stepped back another step and let her hands drop to her sides the guy stepped towards her and started to untie the gloves.

"Most people come in and hit the bag for fifteen to twenty minutes. Sometimes one or two of them might need to work the bag for thirty to forty minutes. But I have never seen someone stressed enough to go almost two straight hours at the bag."

"uh what"

"You just kicked the shit out of the bag for the past two hours. Not many people can do that."

"oh, I did not realize that I was here that long, I just seemed to zone out and I have to say it really works well."

"I am Matt by the way."

"Its Stephanie but my friends call me Steph"

"Nice to meet you"

Walking over to her pocketbook that was still sitting on the shelf, she turned to look over her shoulder and asked, "So how much do I owe you?"

"It is on the house on one stipulation."

"Sorry I am not really interested on going out with anyone right now" Steph responded.

Matt balked out laughing so hard that his face turned red as a beet. Steph huffed, grabbed her purse and started pulling out some money. Not looking to see how much she grabbed she threw them at Matt's feet while he was still laughing. She turned and started walking to the door.

"Steph! Wait! I'm sorry." A few more chuckles came out.  
"It is not everyday that someone speaks their mind like that. But I was not going to ask you out. I have a girlfriend that would not like that very much."

"Oh, um sorry, I guess after the day I had I was not thinking and thought you were laughing at me."

"No, I was going to say that today's session was on the house if you would consider coming back 1-2 times a week. I think you have a lot of potential and it might help your stress level."

"I guess I would consider it, but I probably could only commit to maybe a month or so because I am going out of town soon to help a friend."

"No problem, we have open mat hours from 6am to 11pm seven days a week. I have some classes that run during those times but they are held in other areas of the room."

"Okay, I will see what my schedule allows and I will be back" "Thanks again, it really did help"

Steph turned around after Matt handed her money back and was back in her car back on her way to Trenton to get a much needed shower.

Meanwhile back at Rangeman

About 30 minutes after Steph ran out of the building, the core team returned to the conference room to finish working on some of the open cases. Ranger had looked around for Steph in her cubicle but noticed her bag was missing and figured she probably ran out to meet Lula and check in with the bond office.

After about an hour Lester started getting bored looking at the case files and decided to have some fun with Ranger. "So do you know when you are going ask someone to marry you yet? I am ready to start planning your bachelor party."

Ranger looked up from the file. "Who said you were in charge of the bachelor party?"

"Oh so does that mean you know who you are going to ask to marry you than? So when it the big proposal going to be, I would like to video tape it."  
Bobby and Tank just watched the two of them going back and forth bantering wondering the same thing, who was Ranger going to ask to marry and make it appear to be the real deal.

Ranger just looked at Lester for a few minutes. Finally he stated, "Who do you think I will ask? Do you have any recommendations or are you willing to step up and do the deed of getting hitched?"

"No way man, Bomber agreed with me, no one would believe that I would be settling down in a relationship"

"Oh is that so" Ranger responded.

"Yeah she pointed out how many dates I have had in the last two weeks and called me a slut."

"Wait, when did you talk to Steph about this?" Ranger asked

"Earlier in the kitchen, she asked how the case was going and offered to be a sounding board. I figured it could not hurt since we did not seem to be getting anywhere on our own."

"How did she take it?" Tank asked.

"She seemed okay, but she did jump up half way through her sandwich and said she forgot she was suppose to be somewhere."

The guys all looked at Lester like he was missing a few important facts. "What exactly did you say to her?" Ranger asked


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry for the delay. Started this yesterday and did not finish as much as I wanted too. This is the first time I wrote a fanfic, but I have been playing around with the story line for a while now. Lets just say it is a lot harder to add the filler parts and the small details then you would think.  If anyone is a Babe fan and wants to be my beta or help me let me know. Also keep the reviews coming. It makes it more encouraging that others are enjoying the story.

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Steph arrived back at her apartment and started peeling off her clothes on the way to the bathroom. She allowed the hot steam to build up in the room. After entering the shower, she sighed in content as the hot water soothed her sore muscles. Eventually she got to the important things such as shaving, exfoliating and washing her hair. Steph stepped out of the shower and wrapped the towel around her than grabbed another towel for her hair.

She walked back into her room realizing it was about three thirty and technically she just left work in the middle of the day. So she decided she should head back over to the office and get some more work done. She redressed in her Rangeman black than pulled over one of Ranger's black sweatshirts that she had in the back of her closet for probably well over a year. On her way out the door she stopped and tapped on Rex's cage. He wiggled his butt and backed out of his soup can. Steph actually believed Rex might have cocked his head to the side some and blinked. Steph grabbed some grapes from the fridge and few nuts from the tin she had sitting next to his cage and dropped them into his food bowl. She then filled his water jug with some fresh water and was out the door and back in her car on her way to Rangeman.

She felt calm. Punching that bag really allowed her the time to work through some of her issues. She did not own Ranger. Hell, half the time she was in the "on stage" with Joe. Ranger and her are just friends, and even if he got married for a job they would still be friends. Since that was all worked out she pulled in the gate waving her fob at the sensor and parking her car of the month. Actually the car has lasted since she last blew up two of Ranger's expensive cars. She was now driving a little '95 GMC Sonoma pickup truck. It did not have the much needed back seat that allowed her to catch skips but she did have the bed of the truck she could strap the larger smelly individuals. But the most important thing about the truck was it was all hers. She also had the use of Ranger's fleet of broncos is she really needed them on weekends to go pick up a skip or since she became really close with most of the guys on the fifth floor one of them would offer to help her.

Steph finger waved at the camera and stepped into the waiting elevator. She arrived on the fifth floor moments later and headed right to her office. She booted up her computer and started looking through some of the files she still had to work on. She started a routine search for one of the guys and figured that while that was running she could look at some of the print outs from a few of the other files. Apparently Ranger and Tank felt there was a connection between a few of these files and wanted to see if she could find anything. She glanced over the files last week when they came in but did not really start to dig in till just then. After two hours, Steph had completed four routine searches and was making some ground on the other files. She had papers scattered all over her desk and floor. She was pulling papers out of all different files and stacking them in piles on the floor when she felt the hairs on her neck stand up. She knew the reason was that Ranger was standing behind her but she was to engrossed looking for another document that she glanced up saying "yo" before looking right back down and digging through some more files.

Ranger stood there taking the scene. There were papers all over Steph's cubicle. All he could think was she must be on to something. "yo yourself"

"Hey do you have a empty conference room available that I can use for a day or too?" Steph asked as she looked around at her piles.

"Conference room 3 should be available for the rest of the week. You can use that."

"Okay thanks." Steph started searching a few more stacks of papers when she realized that Ranger was still standing there. She looked up and asked, "Did you need something?"

"Just wanted to check on you, and see if you wanted to come up after work tonight?"

Ranger was watching for her reaction, he was trying to gauge if something was really wrong this afternoon when she left after speaking with Lester or if she really had to be somewhere.

"Yeah I can come up tonight, but I am not sure how long I will be though, I want to look for a few more things and I want to make up a few more hours since I had some things to do earlier" she responded.

"Okay I see you later on seven" Ranger spoke before turning and heading back down the hall. Steph heard him stop to speak with a few of the guys about various jobs before he continued on.


	4. Chapter 4

Steph started collecting all the various piles of documents she separated and carried them to the conference room. Opening the door and turning on the light she looked around at the room. She caught sight of a stapler on the far corner, smiled and figured it would work perfectly. Over the next three hours Steph stapled various papers and news articles she could find connections with all over the walls. She would take a step back and see another connection and realized this was going to need more supplies than just a stapler. She had made various trips back to her desk grabbing different color highlighters and files. At one point she asked some of the evening shift guys for some string and tacks. They looked at her funny before finding the items in the storeroom and handing them over.

It was pushing eleven o'clock and Steph was still in the conference room. She seemed to have run out of steam a half hour ago and not making any new progress. She knew something was there, her spidey sense was tingling but figured she needed some sleep and could look at it in the morning. She shut off the lights, went back to her cubicle, powered down the computer before saying goodnight to the few guys running the just started the midnight shift.

Twenty minutes later Steph entering her apartment when she realized that she was so wrapped up in the case that she forgot to head up to see what Ranger had wanted. She figured it was too late to call him; he probably was already in bed since he likes to rise before sun. She would have to get use to not being able to just stop by his apartment anymore once he got married. His new wife might not appreciate it too much.

Steph turned in for the night knowing that tomorrow was Friday and she would have a long weekend ahead of her since she still had a few outstanding skips to bring in before their bonds expired.

Eight am came way too quickly. Steph contemplated breaking the annoying alarm clock into millions of pieces but figured that it would just add to her list of things to do today. Hence buy a new clock. She struggled out of bed giving it one more meaningful look before she headed to the kitchen to start the coffee brewing before taking off for a shower. Dressed and out the door she pulled in the Rangeman and was walking onto the fifth floor exactly at nine o'clock.

She dropped her things in her cubicle, powered up her computer, and then headed to the break room for another cup of coffee and something to eat since she did not have time to stop for donuts. All she could find was a multigrain muffin. Back in her office she grabbed some more files and headed to the conference room. Turning on the lights she took note that everything was where she left it the night before.

Not knowing where to start she figured she would have to review everything she found yesterday making sure she did not miss anything as well as might give her an idea where to start with today. Steph realized that she was going to need more room; she stuck her head out the door just in time to see Lester and Bobby walking down the hall.

"Hey Les, Bobby can you give me a hand"

"Sure beautiful, whatcha need?"

"Can you move this table out in to the hall or somewhere else? I need the room."

Bobby and Lester looked at each other, shrugged a shoulder and make fast work of the table.  
"Anything else beautiful?"

"Nope that should do it."

She pulled the door shut again, then moved some of the chairs to the end of the room not covered in papers. Taking one rolling chair she placed it in the middle of the room and sat down just starring at the walls. Every once and a while she would jump up and move a paper or add a few more to the walls. She would go back to sitting and spinning around in circles until she spotted something else.

Looking at her watch she realized it was already noon and figured she could use a break and a bite to eat. She was not sure she could go for anymore-healthy items today after somehow missing dinner the night before and only having a healthy brain muffin this morning. She grabbed her bag and took the elevator down to the garage. Not knowing what she was in the mood for she started driving around. About ten minutes later she found her self parked in front of the "Work Your Frustration Out" building from yesterday. Figuring her mind was over worked from looking at all the case files she figured she might as well go in for a little bit.

Walking in she headed over to put her bag on the shelf on the wall and spotted Matt walking towards her with a giant small across his face. "So you came back"

"Yeah some how I left the office for lunch and my car brought be back here instead" she responded laughing.

"Yeah I know it was more my charm" Matt stated also laughing. "So you want to go a few rounds with the bag since your car brought you all this way?"

"Yeah why not, I could use the time to work some things out in my head"

With the gloves tied on, Steph started to work the bag. Matt stayed fairly close this time making suggestions and helping correct her position to help prevent injury. A few times he have her stop to show her a couple movements that she could work together and appeared to be pretty lethal. The two moved around the bag together trying different combinations. Sometimes Matt would hold the bag and let Steph just wail on it, while other times he would shift the bag just enough to make Steph compensate with her body to make the hit connect.

An hour and half later Matt stopped them and told her it was enough for today. Steph just nodded and stuck out her hands to have Matt untie the gloves. After everything was put away Steph headed over to the counter and paid for the next month to use the facility. Steph thanked Matt and headed back to her car. She headed back to Rangeman figuring she could catch a shower in Ranger's apartment or one of the open apartments. A few months ago she decided it would be a good idea to carry around an extra set of clothes in her car as well as leaving one at Rangeman incase she has her normal run of luck and ends up covered in food or paint. Today it would come in handy and she never thought it would be because she volunteered to actually workout. Maybe she needed to go to the doctors this is not like her. Nah she thought, it just seems to be a really good way to release the stress without eating all the donuts. She also figured she could not be seen eating the donuts by the dozen after she had recently told Lula that she should try some moderation and cut back on sweets.

Pulling back into the garage she headed up to the fifth floor to see what apartment was available to use for a shower. Tank told her that all the apartments were currently being used but to run up to Ranger's since he was on a conference call, and he would let Ranger know when he got off. Just wanting to get out of her sweaty clothes she did no over think the situation but grabbed her bag of spare clothes from her bottom desk drawer and headed back toward the elevator.

Somehow Steph managed to control herself and only used Ranger's body wash two times. She figured that was as good as it was going to get. She probably would never be able to say "no" to it all together. Back in black she finished pulling her hair in a ponytail, swiping on some lip gloss and mascara and headed back down making a quick stop in the break room for a sandwich. At this rate between all the healthy eating and the Frustration Center she would start might actually drop a few pounds. Hey it can't be that bad of thing, she would not have to worry about if her jeans fit in the morning.

Back to her conference room she went. She had a thought when she was punching that damn bag she wanted to piece together. She was back in the room working for about half an hour when Ranger stopped in. "Babe"

"Yo" Steph responded.

"What did you do to my conference room? Did you really need to staple all those pieces of paper to the wall? And what is with the string – are you planning a road trip?"

"Yup" she smiled back up at him. She could tell he was laughing on the inside and his lips were tilted upwards. "So what's up?"

"Wanted to talk to you. I missed you last night. I thought you were going to stop when you got done here."

"I was but I lost track of time and did not leave to almost twelve and I was so exhausted I sort of forgot and ended up back at my apartment. I was going to call you but did not want to wake you if you were sleeping."

"Babe you can stop in anytime or call for that matter."

"Oh um Okay but I know how you like your privacy"

"If I did not want you stopping over when ever I would not have given you a key to my place Babe. Do you have some time to talk or are you still in your zone here?" Ranger asked smirking

"No I can talk now, I have not gotten back into this yet. Where do you want to talk at?

"How about my apartment?"  
"I don't think I am liking this already" Steph nervously laughed.

Ranger placed a hand on Steph's lower back and steered her to the elevator. Once in the elevator he pulled her close and got a whiff of his shower gel on her. "You smell good" he said.

"I smell like you" she responded with a slight smile

"I know, I like you smelling like me, if only it was for other reasons then you using my shower while I was not around to help"

"Promises Promises, you seem to be a man of words but there is no follow through. Whatever happened to the opportunist? Is he broken" see responded. Steph knew she was skating on thin ice but she liked this easy banter they could have going on. It was so easy being friends with Ranger.

Ranger growled in her ear and tightened his arms around her. "Playing with Fire Babe"

Entering the apartment Ranger headed to the kitchen, over his shoulder he asked if she wanted anything to drink. "Coke if you have it, if not water is fine"

Ranger came back handing Steph a coke and keeping a bottle of water for himself.

They both sat on the couch facing each other with their backs to the armrest. Steph was determined to wait Ranger out this time. He was the one that wanted to talk; she was not even sure what this was even about.


	5. Chapter 5

"Babe, I know you talked with Lester yesterday about this case that Rangeman is going to be handling."

Steph paused before answering, she was not sure if it was a question or a statement. Steph realized that her pause must been longer than she thought because Ranger started speaking again.

"I know he mentioned that I have to get married in order to carry out the job. And I really cannot force one of my guys to do something for a job that I am not willing to do myself."

"Ranger I understand that you signed the contract for the job, and I don't want you to be mad at Lester for telling me. I just figured it might be helpful to have a sounding board. I know that you have to get married for the job, and I am guessing it will interfere with me going with you to Miami to help Julie so if you want me not to go I understand. I don't want to make it awkward for you and your new wife."

"Babe, no I want you to come with me to Miami. And as for the wife there is only one person I would ever considering asking."

"Oh so what is the problem than?"

Ranger starts to open his mouth to talk but closes it. This happens a few times and Steph just watches in amazement that for once Ranger seems to be having trouble putting together a sentence.

"Babe I really don't know how to ask this without it being weird so I am just going to say it. Will you marry me?"

" uh uh . . . WHAT?" "Have you lost your mind? Me get married? Did you not hear how my first marriage ended? Why do you think I have put Joe off so many times. I don't want to get married, have to quit my job or be a burg mom!"

"Babe I never said anything about quitting your job. And yes I am serious. There is no one else I would even consider asking whether it was for a job or not. You are the only one. I trust you enough to ask you to help Julie. You know I don't let many people know a lot of personal information about me"  
"What personal information? I know you have a daughter, most of the world knows that since the kidnapping was on the news for a week straight."

"And secondly how can you say you would consider only me. We have never dated and we only sleep together one night. It must not have been that great of an event for you since you fled the scene the next morning and sent me back to fix things with Joe. But here you say you want me to marry you for job. What happens after the job is over? Huh, we both have a second divorce to our names?"

"Babe the job would not even start for a few months. Probably sometime after we get back from Miami. And even then, the time line for the job completion is three months to eighteen months in length once the job gets underway. Who knows you might not want to divorce me when it's over. I am pretty good in the shower. "

"Ranger now is not the time for jokes!"  
"You know that shower statement was not a joke. I know I proved it before."

"Look there you go again, trying to distract me with talk of sex."

"Look Babe you know the basics of the situation. I know it is a serious matter and not a easy situation. Think it over and we can talk tomorrow. If you say yes we would need to get it underway immediately. Meaning a public dinner tomorrow night with dancing and a public proposal."

"Are you sure there is no other way? Steph asked

"You know I would not have even asked if there was any other way to get the job done. We would lose a lot of money and accounts if we try to back out of this contract."

"Fine I will think about it and let you know in the morning"

Steph got up from the couch heading for the door. She stopped at the table just inside the door and placed the soda can on the table, than quickly grabbed a set of keys from the tray before continuing toward to the door. She turned over her shoulder and said "Hey Ranger you realize you are going to have to go to dinner at my parents house and you better have the wedding totally planned before my mother catches wind of the engagement or you will be responsible for dealing with her and her need for a burg wedding. You bigger issue will not be losing the account but security for a wedding in the burg"

Steph turned back around and entered into the hallway, hitting the button for the elevator. Steph heard the apartment door open behind her as she continued to face the elevator.  
"Steph did you just say Yes you will marry me?"  
"Ranger you know that I never turned down a job you have asked me to do before right? So why would you think I would now. So yeah I just I just said Yes"

Just than the elevator doors closed with Steph leaving a stunned Ranger still standing in the hallway.


	6. Chapter 6

This was a harder chapter to write I am still going. I have a couple hectic days ahead of me so it might be a little slow for a while but I will try my best. Thanks for the reviews.

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Taking the elevator to the garage Steph looked at the keys in her hand. She did not remember grabbing the keys when she left. She shrugged her shoulders thinking to her self it was probably better than having to stop on the fifth floor to grab her bag. She felt the weight of the keys in her hands. She turned to look at the camera and figured she left Ranger stunned enough that she might have fifteen to thirty minutes before he realized she was out of the building let alone she took one of his cars.

Steph looked around the garage at the cars in Ranger's normal parking spots. Since there was no logo on the set of keys in her hand she started playing with the alarm trying to determine which car she got to take for a ride when the lights on the Porsche blinked. Getting in the car she turned over the ignition and listened to the engine purr. She peeled wheels out of the garage and started for the open road. She need some time to clear her head and think about the conversation that just took place in Ranger's apartment.

Steph started replaying the conversation in her head. She noticed that Ranger only part of the questions she asked. At the time she could not believe he would ask her to marry him. He had to have millions of other possibilities. After recounting the conversation in her head she realized that she just said yes to marrying Ranger.

Shit Shit Shit. How did she miss that? Here she thought she got one over on him for a change and she just walked into exactly what he wanted. She can't marry him could she?

With out looking for on coming traffic she made an illegal u-turn and headed back to the Frustration Center. At this rate Matt should just give her a key to the place. She was going to need it if she really went through with this wedding. She was not sure what exactly her part in the job would be or how they would play off the marriage. Would the sleep in separate rooms, would she still live in her apartment?

Pulling up to the corner that the Frustration Center was located Steph hopped out of the car and took off for the front door. Two steps inside the door she spotted Matt helping another person. She was looking frantically around for someone else to help her. Matt sensing a situation excused himself and headed her way. Steph stuck out her hands that were now shaking. "Hurry up get the gloves on. Please hurry or I might not be responsible for my actions"

Matt got the gloves barely tied before Steph pulled her hands back and started hitting the bag. For the next twenty minutes Steph tore at the bag. Matt could hear bits and pieces of comments coming from her with each hit she took. "Stupid Men, Will you marry me? I trust you, I am good in the shower, it's the kind of love that would come with a condom not a ring, so why now, just because of a job."

Finally Steph collapsed to the floor near the bag. Not sure what to do Matt just watched her for a few minutes to try to determine if she was really done or if this was just a break. He did not want to get in her way if she happened to jump back up and go after the bag again. He finally walked over and sat next to her leaning against the wall. Tears eventually started trickling out of Steph's eyes slowly.

Meanwhile back at Rangeman.

Five minutes after Steph left Ranger came down to the fifth floor. After checking her cubicle and seeing her purse still on top of the desk he headed to the Conference room. Still not able to located Steph Ranger walked back to the Communication Center to see if the guys on the monitors could tell him where Steph went.

Hal looked up from the monitor at Ranger before returning his attention to the screen.  
"Hal have you seen Steph"  
"No she went straight to the garage from your apartment and she left in the Porsche. I figured since she went up with you and that you gave her the keys since she had them when she left. Is there a problem sir?"

"No, can you pull up the GPS for the Porsche."

"Do you want me to have them forward to your phone?"

"Yeah do that."

Turning around and heading towards Tanks office he tilted his head towards the elevator. Without having to make a request Tank jumped up grabbed his keys off his desk and headed toward the elevator next to Ranger. Once in the truck Ranger gave the address Hal sent him. "What happened, you asked Steph to marry you and she said no, than stole your car?"

"No she said yes, than apparently took the car"

"Wait she said Yes? So what is the problem?"

"I am not sure. This is the third time she has disappeared during the workday. I need to make sure everything is all right. I also expected her to put up more of a fight when I asked her."

Pulling up along side of the Porsche Ranger jumped out and told Tank he would see him back in the office later. Ranger started scanning the area for Steph. The Porsche was parked and appeared to be fine. He started walking down the side of the street that the car was parked on and looking into the storefronts to try to catch a glimpse of Steph. Half way down the block he could just barely make out a figure resembling Steph sitting in the corner of the room near a large punching bag. He could see a figure hunched down sitting next to her talking.

Not sure if he should interrupt he stood outside for a few minutes to observe. He did not know the guy nor did he recall ever seeing him before. But now that he thought about it he never once asked Steph over the past few months if she was seeing anyone. He know that Morelli was out of the picture since before the break ins but he has so busy with traveling back and forth to Miami for Julie and the office that he never took it into consideration. The few times they had spent the night together in the past few months all they did was sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Ranger hoped that they were in fact not dating and that he might be causing her to end a relationship. After a few more minutes he noticed tears coming down Steph's cheeks slowly. Not being able to hold back any longer he entered the center and headed towards Steph. Steph felt Ranger in the room. She used the back of her now gloveless hand and wiped the tears off her face.

Ranger approached Steph and said "Hey Babe"

"Ranger, this is Matt, Matt this is my boss Ranger"

Matt stands up, nods toward Ranger and states "I will let you talk, let me know if you need anything, and Steph relax this weekend, I don't want to see you back in here before Monday, I am not sure if the bag can handle anymore of you this week."

Steph looked at him with her death rays when she realized Matt was smiling really wide as he walked away.

Ranger took the seat against the wall next to Steph that Matt just vacated. "Do I want to ask what that was about?"

"No, that was just Matt humor"

"Is everything okay, you sort of left really fast and you took the Porsche. You also left your bag on your desk."

"Oh sorry, just needed to get away to think for a few minutes."

"Anything you want to talk about?"

"Probably a good idea but not here." She responded

Ranger nodded, stood and held out his hand to help her out. He then placed his hand on her lower back and led her out of the building towards the car. "Where do you want to talk?"

Pausing Steph finally suggested "How about the park?" while biting her lip

Ranger noticed that Steph seemed to be a little nervous. He helped her in the passenger side after helping her with the seat belt. Ranger noticed that she was still biting her lip. Figuring that at the rate she was going there would be nothing left of it by the time they reached the park. Ranger leaned over closer to Steph this time, dragging his lips over hers in the softest of kisses. After a few passes of his lips he pulled back and walked over to the drivers side.

Ranger pulled the car into a parking spot, walked around the car to help Steph get out. Ranger was still holding Steph's hand from helping her out of the car. They started walking around the paved track that weaved through the park. It was a fairly chilly out being the beginning of December. Steph pulled her coat a little tighter around her. They walked for a few minutes in silence before Ranger asked, "So want to tell me what is wrong?"

Looking straight ahead Steph sighed. "Your one of my best friends. You are always there when I need you, and even when I don't need you but it is nice to still know that you care. I don't want to lose that."

"Why would you lose it?"

"Because we are getting married for a job. Unless you have changed your stand, you don't want to get married, and I don't have an urge for marriage. So it is for all the wrong reasons. I still keep asking myself what happens when the job ends. Do we just end the marriage? Do we go back pretending to be just friends? What about our parents? I love my mother, but I don't want to be compared to Valarie or ever other Burg daughter when I have to tell her the marriage is over."

"We don't have to end the marriage. You might decide that you love me and want to stay married to me."

Thinking to herself, "I do love you, that is the problem"

Ranger stood still. Steph did not realize that he had stopped till their arms were stretched to the point it pulled her back. Not sure what happened Steph looked around. She was not sure if Ranger spotted a threat but if that was the reason why is he still standing in the middle of the trail. Looking at Ranger with confused eyes she asked, "What's wrong?"

"You love me?"

"What"

"You just said, "You loved me. And apparently it is a problem to love me?"

"I said that out loud?"

"Yeah you did."

"Oh."


	8. Chapter 8

"You love me?"

"What"

"You just said, "You loved me. And apparently it is a problem to love me?"

"I said that out loud?"

"Yeah you did."

"Oh."

Steph pulled Ranger's arm indicating she wanted to continue walking. Ranger allowed her to do this knowing that she was trying to get her thoughts in order.

"So who is Matt?"

"huh what? Oh Matt, he owns the Frustration Center. I meet him the other day when I stopped into the Center."

"So nothing is going on between the two of you?"

Thinking back to her first session with Matt she responded "No his girlfriend would not appreciate that very much"

Steph could feel the tension lessen from Ranger's body.

Deciding that it was better to just talk with Ranger than trying to avoid it any longer she started with "Do you remember when Scrog held Julie and me in my apartment. (feeling Ranger tense up again she squeezed his hand as she continued on) Well I was tied to a chair and partially gagged. I couldn't really even make a sound. Scrog said that if I made any noise that he would hurt Julie. I was trying to do what you said about focusing on the objective you know. But when I realized that it was either Joe or possibly you coming through the door I could not even wish for it being one of you more than another. I knew whoever it was would probably die. I had a moment of clarity. I realized that I loved both Joe and you. Until that day I had never told Joe that I loved him. And I will admit that it has taken me a long time to realize that I might love him but I am not in love with him. I really couldn't be if I had all these feelings for you. I want to say that I have gotten to know you since that day. You have been there for me on my good days as well as on almost all of my bad days. You have never told me to quit my job, but instead you have encouraged me. You gave me cars worth more than I could make in years and did not even blink an eye when they were turned to ash. I am not sure when but somewhere over the last few years my feelings for have changed from friends, to friends that love each other, to being in love with you. If I was to be totally honest this is one of the reasons I have tried to keep distance between us. You told me you did not do relationships and here I am in love with you. I don't know what to do with these feelings I have for you. If I allow myself to get too close I risk the chance of getting hurt and if I pull back too far I risk losing what we friendship we have. If all I be is your friend then I wanted to make sure it was still an option."

Ranger stopped walking again and used their conjoined hand to pull Steph up against him. Moving their united hands he positioned them behind her back causing her to trapped against his body. Using his free hand he tilted her chin up, looking in to her eyes and said "Stephanie, Babe I love you too. Even more than that I have been in love with you for a while." With that he leaned down and kissed her like it might be their last kiss. When he finally pulled back he could see the dazed expression in her eyes.

Ranger continued to speak once Steph's eyes cleared. "I was trying to give you space to figure out what and who you wanted. I also still have time on my contract with the government so I really am not in a position to offer my whole self. This is a reason I have been dropping hints but not forcing too much pressure on you to make a choice."

Ranger could feel Steph shivering. They had been at the park for at least an hour walking around and talking. "You cold Babe?"

"yyyyeeeesssss" Steph stuttered out. She did not realize how cold she was till she had stopped talking and walking.

With that Ranger turned them and directed the way to the car. He helped Steph into the car before walking around to the driver's side. Before pulling out of the lot Ranger kicked up the heater than entered into his zone leaving Steph wondering what this all meant. She just poured out her heart and she was not sure where that left them. Looking around Steph noticed that Ranger was pulling into her apartment parking lot. She looked over at him trying to figure out why they were back here instead of at Rangeman since that is where her car was.

Pulling into a parking spot, Ranger came around and helped Steph out of the car and headed into the building. Figuring that just spent over an hour walking in the park he allowed her to led him to the elevator. Outside Steph's door Ranger used his lock picking kit to open the door since Steph's bag was still at the office and than went into action to make sure everything was secure. Not wanting to wait any longer Steph entered her apartment and headed to the kitchen to check on Rex.

Ranger came back through the hall and shook his head when he saw Steph standing in the kitchen talking to the hamster.

"Babe would you be interested in having dinner with me tonight. I can have Ella whip something up and we could watch a movie?"

Steph looked a little hesitant. Finally she said, "sure that would be nice, but I expect dessert!"


	9. Chapter 9

"Do you mind if I grab a quick shower and change before we leave?"

"No take your time" Ranger responded

Ranger waited till he heard Steph in the shower before he entered her bedroom. He reached into her closet and grabbed out her duffle bag. He packed the bag with a change of clothes and the necessities. He knew that Ella had some hair products and makeup in the apartment so he would not need to grab any of those. Making quick work he grabbed the bag and Rex's cage off the counter and headed down to put everything in the car. By the time he made it back in the apartment he heard the shower just shutting off. Taking a seat in the chair that was angled slightly towards the hallway he waited to catch a glimpse of Steph walking towards the bedroom. A few moments later Ranger was not disappointed as he watched Steph open the door with one towel wrapped around her body and one around her hair.

Steph shuffled into the bedroom shutting the door over. She figured there was no point in locking it since Ranger could just pick the lock. She pulled a matching baby blue lace bra and panty set from Victoria Secret on. Steph than grabbed her favorite pair of faded blue jeans that made her ass look great. She pulled on a form fitting cream color shirt and a hoodie from her closet. Lastly she laced up a pair of her cross trainers. She walked back towards the bathroom where she made quick work of blow drying her hair and applying a light coating of makeup. She did not want to look like she was trying to hard after all it was just dinner and a movie at his apartment.

Meanwhile the phone rang in the apartment while Steph was using the hair dryer. Ranger could hear the answer machine kick in, "Stephanie this is your mother, what is this I hear that you were seen walking in the park holding hands and kissing that bounty hunter guy. What will Joe think? Joe is your last chance of getting married and having kids. You better call him and apologize. I don't hear about Mary's daughter having sex in the park in the middle of the afternoon. Call me, I am making coconut cream pie for desert and you better be here to explain yourself."

Range just shook his head at the message. He could not believe how Steph's mother acted. Just than Steph walked out of the bathroom, and said "you ready?"

"Yeah lets get out of here." He figured he needed all the help he could get and did not want Steph's mother giving her second thoughts about the marriage so he did not tell her about the missed call.

Steph grabbed her coat by the door and they headed down the stairs to the car.

A few minutes into the drive Steph could hear a noise. It sounded like metal rattling or rubbing. She looked over towards Ranger to see if he noticed the noise also. She could hear it happening again while she was looking at Ranger. He still did not seem to notice. Finally speaking up "umm Ranger?"

"Yeah Babe"

" I think something is wrong with your car"

Ranger's eyes left the road to look in her direction, "Babe nothing is wrong with this car"

"Are you sure? It is making noise and I am not going to be blamed for anymore of your cars being destroyed."

"Babe again nothing is wrong with the car, why do you think that something is?

"I keep hear a metal on metal noise. I know cars, at least expensive cars like yours should not be making that kind of noise. Now if It was my car it would be normal."

"Babe it is not the car, look in the back seat"

Steph turned around to look behind Ranger's seat, not seeing anything she pivoted back around.

"I don't see anything"

"Behind you seat" Ranger responded without taking his eyes off the road.

"Why is Rex in your car Ranger?"

"I was hoping you might spend the night and this way you would not have to worry about feeding Rex in the morning."

"And when were you going to ask me? I have my own apartment for a reason." Steph could not believe him. Here Ranger was making decisions for her without asking her first. Regardless if they were going to go through with the marriage for the job or not, she was an adult and could make her own decisions. She hoped that he did not expect her to sleep with him just because of this fake marriage. Steph felt that she still would have to protect her heart. Ranger might have told her that he loved her while at the park earlier but he also said that he was not free to give his whole self so if it was not for the job he would not have any inclination to get married for real.

Ranger sighed, "Babe, I was hoping that we would be able to take some more tonight. We need to work out some details for the job and I figured if it goes late you might prefer to spend the night instead of having to drive home. Plus I know you have what five skips you need to bring in by Sunday?"

"Yeah I have five outstanding and I was going to do them tomorrow."

"I figured but I was going to offer to help you to hopefully make it go easier."

"Ranger only two of the five might give me a problem. I done my research on them so finding them should be pretty simple."

"Well I was hoping that you would still be going out to dinner with me tomorrow night and if I help it would give you extra time to get ready."

"Dinner? What dinner?"

Ranger sighed again; Steph must be rubbing off on him. "I asked you earlier today before you stole my Porsche. You do remember taking the Porsche right?"

Not sure if she should be afraid to be sent to a third world country she throw her innocent wide eyes at Ranger and answered "Was that today that I took the Porsche?"

"Yeah Babe right after you agreed to marry me. Don't think I will let you forget that."

"Oh so where is this dinner going to be and what time?"

"If everything goes well tomorrow how about 7pm and it is a surprise."

"Ranger you have to give me a clue so I know how to dress."

"I prefer you in nothing but sexy and classy would work great also."

"Fine I will figure out something to wear. But don't forget you have to break the news to my mother. That was part of the deal. And beware I warned you, if you don't want to have a reception at the VFW hall with the entire burg invited you better plan fast and sweet talk my mother even faster."

"Fine we will figure it out." He responded as he pulled into the underground garage at Rangeman. He reached in the back seat and grabbed the duffle bag and Rex's cage. Steph exited the car and meet him at the back of the car. Together they walked to the elevator and headed to the 7th floor apartment. Once inside Ranger set Rex on the counter and dropped the duffle bag in the bedroom closet. Coming back out he placed a call to Ella asking for dinner for two.

Ranger turned around towards Stephanie who was just watching as Ranger went about his business. "Babe I am going to grab a shower, make your self comfortable."

"Actually I was thinking of running down to five to get my purse."

"Ok I will see you in a few."

Ranger headed for the shower while Steph took the elevator down to five. She walked to her cubicle to grab her purse and saw the massive stack of files that have been added to her in box. Between working on the other files and being out of the office half the day she was really far behind. She picked up the stack of files and flipped through them to make sure nothing was marked urgent. A couple of the names looked familiar but she was not sure where she had seen them before. Figuring she had a few minutes she powered up her computer and started to plug in the first file. While the first file was printed she started the second file running. Steph started to put the papers in order when a something caught her eye. She took the whole file with her to the conference room she commandeered earlier in the week. She started looking around at some of the other papers up on the wall then would refer back to the most recent file that she found. She started to highlight the new some facts on the new documents and added some of them to the wall with the others. She thought that she found a connection between a number of these individuals and she did not think this was what Ranger or Tank would be expecting. She headed back to her computer to see if the other search was finished. She started to print that file also when Ranger appeared at her doorway. "Babe"

"Oh hi, give me a minute I want to check something"

"Is that the Mathews file you are working on?

"no, this was one of the files in my inbox but a couple of the names looked familiar so I wanted to run the searches real fast. I just took the other file to the conference room and came to check if this one was done yet. I think it is connected to the Mathews file though."

Ranger pulled Stephanie to him and kissed her forehead. "Good work Babe, but let it wait till Monday. Ella will bring dinner any minute"

If as on cue Stephanie's stomach let out a deep growl. Ranger chuckled when her heard the beast let itself known.

Steph turned off the computer and took the file in her hand and placed it in the conference room on the way to the elevator.

Ella was just closing the door when the elevator opened up to let them off. After exchanging hello and thank you they headed into the apartment. The heavenly smells meet them at the door. Heading toward the kitchen Steph grabbed some plates and utilizes from the cabinets while Ranger brought out a bottle of red wine and two wine glasses. "Body not a temple tonight or are you trying to get me drunk to try to talk me into more commitments?" Steph asked chuckling.

"Maybe both" came the response also chuckling.

They sat down and ate dinner in quite. The both enjoyed a glass of wine with dinner. After they both were finished they rinsed their plates and placed them in the dishwasher. Ranger grabbed the bottle of wine and refilled both of their glasses. Grabbing the bottle he directed Steph into the living room to the couch. Placing the half full bottle on the table along with their glasses he pulled Steph down next to him draping his arm around her in an tempt to keep her close.

After a few minutes of quite Ranger asked "are you going to be able to go through with this? You know I would never ask this of you if I thought there was another option and I would not consider doing this job with anyone else?"

"You know I already said I would. I won't back out on you. So what happens now?"

"Well we have dinner out tomorrow night in a public place where people are to notice the proposal. That will help get the word out. The only people who will know anything of this situation will be Tank, Lester, Bobby and of course us."

"Okay so dinner tomorrow night I can handle. What else, I don't want any surprises."

"We really still need to be in Miami in about a months time, I know it seems rushed but I would like to be married and than we can say we are visiting my daughter before taking a honeymoon."

"You expect to plan a whole wedding in less than a month? You can't. Invitations have to go out at least six weeks before the date, you have to get a photographer, a reception hall. It is just not possible."

"Babe, we can do a small ceremony. Only invite immediate family and friends. This will eliminate the whole burg from being invited. You don't want a really big wedding do you?"

"No I had one the first time and I hated it. But you still have to give people notice."

"Well what if we say that due to security issues we want to keep it a small gathering, and to have it so soon to prevent any kind of media or risk due to our professions? Would that work?"

"It might, do you know what you want to do about a wedding party? Do you have anyone specifically you want or need to ask? I don't even know if you have any brothers you would ask?"

"Probably my brother and Tank if we are going to keep it small. Lester and Bobby could be ushers. Apparently Lester is only concerned with the Bachelor party."

"Yeah he would be. He is a really is a slut. At the rate he gets around I am surprised no one has called him to tell him he's going to be a daddy." Steph stated shaking her head. She could feel Ranger slightly laughing as her head was resting on his shoulder.

"Do you know who you are going to ask to be your maid of honor? You asking Valerie?"

"I think I would ask Marylou to my by matron of honor and I guess I should ask Val to be a bridesmaid. I am going to have bribe Lula not to get upset for not being in the wedding. Maybe she will be fine with it since Tank is going to be in the wedding party. I know things are still weird between them."

Sometime over their talk they both had another two glasses of wine finishing the bottle. They had been sitting on the couch and talking when Ranger noticed it was already eleven o'clock. "Come on Babe time for bed"

Steph feeling no pain simply nodded and stood up following Ranger. Ranger sent Steph in the bathroom first with one of his t-shirts to get ready for bed. Ranger used the same time to change in the bedroom and waited to use the bathroom. Steph came out and climbed into the bed pulling the blankets up to her chest. Ranger was out of the bathroom a few moments later and headed to the bed. Stephanie rolled over and curled into his body. Ranger took advantage of this situation and wrapped his arms around her. Before falling asleep Steph mumbled into Ranger's chest, "just because you fed me half a bottle of wine don't think you are getting lucky, you better keep your hands to yourself."

"Babe you are already draped all over me you keep this up and I will take it as consent." By the time Ranger got that sentence out of his mouth Stephanie was already fast asleep against his chest.


	10. Chapter 10

Ok I made you wait long enough, sorry very busy weekend I did not have a chance to write. Hope you enjoy.

Thanks for all the great feedback. I really enjoy that so many people feel the same way that I do. Some of the comments make me smile and others make me laugh. It makes it worth writing another chapter ;)

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Steph woke up to feel a hand on her ass and find herself totally draped on top of Ranger. Picking her head up off Ranger's chest she realized that he was still asleep. Her brain must have been slower to come awake then the rest of her body because all at once she realized that this was not a good situation. She jumped up off the bed waking Ranger in the process. She backed away from the bed; "sorry um, I was just going to get a shower" she mumbled and spun around quickly heading to the bathroom.

Steph finished in the shower having calmed herself down enough to leave the safety of the bathroom. She wrapped herself in Ranger's terry cloth robe and walked back into the bedroom. Ranger was sitting on the side of the bed with his head in his hands. "Is everything alright? She asked.

"Yeah, I was about to ask you the same thing. You jumped up pretty quickly."

"Yeah everything is fine, I just wanted a shower."

"Liar"

"No I really wanted a shower; I did not mean to wake you up."

"Babe, it is 5:30am, this is not your normal wake up time."

"What!" It can't be 5:30am. Then I am going back to bed." Steph flopped on the bed face first. She reached beside her to pull the covers to cover her. Ranger got up and headed to the bathroom. Within a few moments he was getting back in bed again.

"Uh Ranger are you heading to the gym or don't you have your normal twenty miles to go run?

"Babe are you trying to get rid of me? I figured that I will get plenty of exercise chasing after your skips today."

"Oh" Steph turned over on her back and made sure she was lying on her half of the bed. She did not want to take the chance of ending draped over Ranger again until she had time to figure things out.

Ranger pulled the covers up on his side and reached out to pull Steph closer to him. He could feel her body tense as he put both of his arms around her. "Babe relax, I not trying anything just keeping you close to me. Now go back to sleep." Steph relaxed a little until she heard his breathing even out indicating that he was back to sleep. A few minutes later Steph fell asleep also.

The next time Steph came awake the sun was pouring through the curtains into the room. She could still feel that she was wrapped in Ranger's arms but now his body was wrapped around her. Ranger's head was buried into the side of her neck. Afraid to move and have a repeat of earlier she tried to lie still enjoying the feeling of Ranger's arms around her. A few minutes later she could feel feather like kisses along her neck. A soft moan escaped her mouth and unconsciously she tilted her head allowing Ranger more access to her neck. The feather light kisses turned into open mouth kisses intermingled with some light sucking. A few more soft moans could be heard as the kisses crept up Steph's jaw line to her mouth. At first they were light; Ranger was giving her time to make sure she was really awake and consenting. Ranger than deepened the kiss by sweeping his tongue into her mouth. Steph was giving as good as she was getting. Before it could go any further Steph pulled back. Ranger was a little confused as to why Steph pulled back.

"I guess we should be getting up if we expect to bring my skips in today." She stated as she slide out of Ranger's arms and out of bed.

"Babe"

Steph was heading to the closet for her bag of clothes when Ranger spoke. "Is something wrong? Did I do something?"

Keeping her back to him and reaching for the bag and hoisting it up to her shoulder she turned around "no, just figured we need to get going."

Ranger blew out a frustrated sigh. "You know that is not what I mean."

Knowing if she did not give him an answer Ranger would continue to ask. "If you want to really know, you have been back and forth to Miami for the last what three months. I have only seen you in passing once or twice a week if that often. Then you come back not even a week ago and ask me to pick up what I am doing to go to help Julie in Miami." Ranger was about to say something but Steph put up her hand and keep on going. "I don't mind going to Miami or helping Julie. I said I would do it and I feel honored you would ask me to help. Than you ask me to marry you for a job that I have no clue what it entails. You have me spending the night and plan on helping me with my skips all of a sudden. It is a little much for me to get my head around. I tell you that I love you and am in love with you and you tell me that you are still fulfilling your government contacts and can not give yourself fully right now. So please excuse me if I hold back and don't just jump into having sex with you." She whirled around and headed right to the bathroom allowing the door to slam shut before Ranger could even respond.

Steph leaned against the bathroom door trying to calm her breathing and prevent herself from crying. She did not mean to yell let alone tell Ranger everything she was thinking but he wouldn't let it be. She did not care if he was mad at her. She did not mean to let things go that far, it is just being that close to him that causes her to stop thinking some times and right now she needs to keep her distance so she could think properly. After about five minutes she was calm enough to push away from the door and head to the sink. She splashed some cold water on her face then proceeded to get ready of the day. She figured she showered only a few hours ago and as much as she would like another shower just to prolong going back out into the bedroom she needed to get going. She dressed for the day in a pair of faded jeans and a long sleeve stretchy shirt. She brushed her hair and pulled it into a ponytail. She added some lip gloss and went heavy on the mascara figuring she would need it today.

She opened the door to find Ranger still sitting on the side of the bed like she found him at 5:30am. Ranger turned to her and was about to speak but again Steph beat him too it. "Look sorry, I did not mean to yell but you wanted to know what was wrong. But I don't want to keep talking about this. I think you might have caused me to be all talked out in the last twenty four hours. So I am going to go eat and than catch some skips. If you want to still come than I will meet you on five if not I will be going myself." She turned, grabbed her sneakers from by the door and headed in to the living room to put her socks and shoes on. Steph could hear the shower come on and figured that Ranger would still be helping her today. Steph headed back into the bedroom and grabbed one of Ranger's pullover sweatshirts and then grabbed her jacket and headed down to five.

Steph hit the break room first. She filled a large mug with coffee adding milk and sugar and inhaled it. She was on her third cup and feeling much better when Tank came strolling in. She took one of the banana nut muffins from the basket on the table while she finished her third mug of coffee. "Morning" he mumbled.

"What's wrong with you, you out living Lester's lifestyle now?" As soon as it was out of her mouth Lester walked through the break room. "Beautiful no one can keep up with my lifestyle, I perfected it."

"Least I know what you did last night, no point in asking" Steph responded giggling.

"Oh and what did you and the Boss man do last night?" Lester joked while wiggling his eyebrows up and down.

"Nothing, we had dinner, talked and went to bed. Now if you excuse me I want to check on my files before I head out to get some skips today."

Steph exited the room heading to her cubicle missing the look that was shared between Tank and Lester.

Steph grabbed her pile of outstanding skips and flipped through them. She came up with a list of which order she wanted try to pick them up based on which one she might be lucky to catch still hung over and which ones might be at work already. Hearing the communication floor get quite she knew that Ranger had arrived. She put the files in her bag, checked her stun gun to make sure it was charged, her gun for bullets and hooked it on her utility belt. She dug into her bag for her handcuffs and mace than attached those also the belt. Stepping out of the office she approached Ranger who was standing talking with Tank and Lester.

"Ready to go or should I just head out" she asked.

"No let's go." He looked to Tank and said "let me know if you get a line on the skip" he then turned and headed towards to elevator.


	11. Chapter 11

Ranger and Steph hopped into one of the broncos. Steph pulled out her files, "I figured I would try Johnny first" and then continued to read off his address. Ranger directed the truck in that direction and pulled up a few houses down ten minutes later. They sat in quite for a few minutes observing the house for any activity. "How do you want to handle this?" Ranger asked.

"I will take the front; you take the back in case he runs. I doubt he will, he is probably coming off a bender but just to be safe we will cover all exits." She responded than reached for the door handle and exited the truck.

Steph waited till Ranger had enough time to get around the side of the truck before she knocked on the door. She knocked three times before the door was wrenched open and two beady bloodshot eyes stared at her. "Whatcha want"

Steph stuck her shoe in the door way slightly and gave her spiel "Hi my name is Stephanie and I represent your Bond Agent," She did not get any further when Johnny tried to push her back and shut the door but Steph was expecting this and lunged forward knocking Johnny off balance taking them both to the floor. Steph had the cuffs on him before he had a chance to recover from hitting his head when he hit the floor." Ranger was back around the front of the house and helped Steph pick the skip up and loaded into the back of the bronco.

Johnny whined the whole way to the police station about his head hurting and not feeling so well. They pulled up to the station and Steph opened the back door of the bronco to help Johnny out. As soon as Johnny got his feet on the ground he was beyond the color green. Before Steph could react and take a step back her entire front was covered in puke. Steph tried to cover her mouth and nose to prevent herself from puking. It did not seem to help because she puked up her coffee and banana muffin on Johnny. Feeling totally disgusted she pulled the sweatshirt off and handed it to Ranger "I am going to wash up; you think you can get Johnny into booking?" She did not wait for a response but started up the steps of the station and down the hall to the ladies room.

Steph washed her hands, face and rinsed out her mouth the best she could. The majority of the puke had been on the sweatshirt and a little on her shoes. Since she took off the sweatshirt she wiped down the shoes. Figuring that was the best she was going to get, she headed out of the restroom to the vending machine in the corner of the hall and purchased a pack of gum. She opened two pieces and stuffed them both in her mouth and started chewing. At the rate she was going today she figured she probably should have just gone back to bed this morning.

Steph headed back to the booking desk to see the clerk hand Ranger the receipt for Johnny. "Great perfect timing, ready to go? Ranger asked."

"Yeah, lets go."

Back in the bronco they headed to the next house. "This is Mark's second time being picked up for indecent exposure."

"Babe how old is this guy?"

"47 but it says he's 5ft 8in and 378lbs so I can see someone taking offense from being flashed."

"Alright but I going to the front door this time, you get the back. Is that alright?"

"Yeah I don't want to be seeing anything he is offering to show."

Steph pulled out her stun gun and got around the back of the house and stood beside the steps. She could hear Ranger ringing the door bell, the door opened; there was some kind of commotion than she saw the back door open and Mark running down the steps.

Steph took off after Mark across the yard. Being the size Mark was it only took a few strides before she caught up with him and brought the stun gun to his back. Mark fell like a ton of bricks and the earthquake he caused hitting the floor knocked her over also. Okay so maybe it was Mark's foot that flung out and knocked her knee out but he fell so hard it could have been from the earthquake he created.

Standing up and brushing the debris from her jeans she looked around. She still did not see any sight of Ranger. That was weird she thought. She put the cuffs on Mark just in case he came too before she got back and then headed towards the house. Steph walked in the back door cautiously not sure what she would find. When she got to the hallway she saw Ranger laying under a bookcase. Steph panicked at first thinking that Ranger was seriously hurt but when she realized that he slipped in what appeared to be cherry jello and hit his head she thought that it could be a pretty funny situation. The book shelf was actually not even touching him but leaning over and propped up by another shelf on the other side of the hallway. Steph grabbed her cell phone off her belt and called Rangeman.

"Rangeman this is Cal how can I help you"

"Cal its Steph, hey I need for Bobby to come take a look at Ranger and if someone could drop my truck off at the following address I appreciate it."

"Is Ranger ok?"

"He should be, I believe he has a concussion but he is unconscious and that is why I would like Bobby to come take a look."

"Okay Bobby is on his way and I will have someone over with your truck in a few minutes."

"Thanks Cal"

Steph hung up, double checked Ranger again for a pulse than went back outside to the back yard. She could see that Mark was just coming around and figured she better get him secured in the truck and than she could go back in to sit with Ranger.

Mark was all locked into the truck, and Steph was sitting next to Ranger holding his hand waiting for the guys to show up. The bookcase was too heavy to move on her own and she did not want to take the chance of it slipping when she tried and it actually falling on Ranger. Steph was able to move all the excess books that laid around Ranger out of the way. She wasn't taking any chances so she had her gun out sitting on her lap.

A few minutes later she could hear a truck pull up out front and a knock on the front door. She called out "who is it". "Bobby" She got up, unlocked the door and let Bobby and Hal in. Bobby headed right over to Ranger and started checking for a pulse and checking his eyes while Hal took care of moving the bookcase.

"Ok it looks like he just has a concussion, how long has he been out?" Bobby asked

"Maybe ten to fifteen minutes, I heard a noise than the skip came flying out the back door. I tackled the skip and came right back in because Ranger had not come out yet. I called as soon as I found him. When I knew he was okay and you were on your way I secured the skip in the bronco and came back in here to guard over him. The bookshelf was too heavy for me to lift by myself."

"Bomber you did well. I am just going to take him to the ER just to make sure everything is okay since he was out so long." While he was talking Bobby waved some salts under Ranger's nose and you could see his eyes start to open even though they looked dazed.

After a few more minutes Bobby helped Ranger up and headed out to the truck. Since Mark was still cuffed in the back of the other Bronco Hal offered to drop him off at the station and Steph headed over to her pickup truck that was sitting on the side of the road. She felt bad about not going with Ranger to the ER but she really needed to get her other three skips in plus she needed time to get ready for tonight.


	12. Chapter 12

Steph looked through her last three files. She decided to go for Margret. She was listed as living in an apartment complex a couple blocks over from her own. She was a 68 year old retired seamstress. Steph pointed her truck in that direction and took off. Finding parking only halfway back in the lot she headed for the lobby. Margret listed that she was in apartment 1C. Steph figured her luck might be looking up, fairly good parking and not having to take the stairs. Margret answered the door on the first knock and was more than willing to head down to the police station with Steph once she realized that Steph was related to Grandma Mazur. Steph dropped Margret off at the station after arranging to have Connie come bond her back out and got her receipt than headed back to her car. It was close to noon now and she was getting hungry since she lost her breakfast earlier thanks to Johnny.

Steph figured she would stop at her parent's house for lunch. As soon as she pulled to the curb in front of their house she knew she should have just gone to McDonald's. Her mother was standing on the porch with her hands on her hips. Not able to think of what she did wrong this time she got out of the truck and headed to the house. "Hi mom how are you exams going? Are you finished the semester yet?"

"Don't Hi Mom me, you missed dinner last night and I have been waiting for you to come over and explain yourself, now get into the house before you cause anymore attention on this family."

Steph entered the house not sure what her mother was hinting out. "Mom I did not know I was suppose to come to dinner last night, and what have I done now?"

"Don't you take that fresh attitude with me? What is this about you holding hands and kissing that bounty hunter fellow in the park yesterday? I heard you were having sex out in public."

"Mom you can not listen to everything you hear. You know how this town works on rumors."

"So you were not in the park yesterday with this guy?"

"No I was with Ranger in the park yesterday. We were walking around and talking, when did that become a big issue? People talk in public all the time, and I held hands with boys since I was sixteen."

"Were you kissing?"

"We did kiss but we were not having sex in the park. I still do not see why it is anyone's business what I do and with who I do it. Mom I am thirty three years old. I went a way to school; I have been married and divorced. I believe I can make my own decisions and discover my own mistakes without someone pointing them out every other minute."

"Well what will Joseph think when he hears of you kissing this bounty hunter guy? If you keep this up he might never ask you to get married."

"Mom, Joe and I have not been together in almost five months now. And this bounty hunter has a name, his name is Ranger, he has come to dinner before and you have met him."

"What kind of name is Ranger anyway?"

"If you don't want to call him Ranger than he won't have a problem with you call him Ric or by Carlos."

"I guess I can do that. Is he an option for you to get married? You know you are not getting any younger."

"Mom if and when I get married is my decision. Now please can we be done with this? I stopped by for lunch if you still have any leftovers since I have been out working all morning and I still have a few more skips to still go pick up."

Steph took a seat at the counter and a few minutes later a plate filled with an Italian roast beef sandwich and potato salad filled the plate. She also had a glass of ice tea to go along with it. After finishing everything on her plate she took the plate to the sink where her mom took it out of her hand. "Go get to work; I want to get some more studying done before your grandmother gets back from her trip to Atlantic City with the senior citizens."

Not waiting to be told twice, Steph headed back out to her truck. She had two more skips to go. Frank was a 23 yr old college student that apparently got kicked off campus after he took his chemistry experiments to a whole new level. She headed over a few blocks from the police station to the address listed. She pulled up across from his house since that appeared to be the only available parking. She grabbed her bag and checked that all her ammo was still on her utility belt before knocking on the door. Jacob opened the door holding a flask of some type of liquid in each hand. He said he would be willing to go with her but he would not be able to put the liquids down because he had to monitor them very carefully. Steph figured at least he was willing to come and if he wanted to carry flasks of liquid around it was fine with her.

Frank got into her truck and Steph walked around to the other side. Before Steph could start the engine one of flasks started to make a weird noise and started to bubble all over Frank's hand and the interior of her truck. Frank screamed like a girl when the liquid came in contact with his skin causing him to drop both flasks. Frank screamed "get out, run the truck will blow" Steph did not hesitate, she grabbed her bag barely got the seatbelt off and out of the truck before the entire cab was engulfed in fire. Steph took a breath, looked over at Frank and said "Do you have a car?" He nodded timidly and pointed to the white Pontiac sitting in the drive way. "Good we are going to take that to the station, lets go before the cops and fire trucks get here and block us in." When they got to the car Steph put her hand out for the keys indicated that she was going to drive. She backed out of the driveway and was about three streets over when the first police cruiser when flying past them. After five more police cars and two fire engines passed them Frank looked over at Steph and said "You weren't kidding when you said that they would come and we would have been blocked in. How did you know they would respond that fast."

"Let just say you are not the first person to blow up my vehicle. It seems to happen quite often but I am on a tight schedule today and could not wait around."

"Sorry about that, I did not know that the liquids would have responded that quickly. I thought I had another couple hours, I must of timed something wrong."

"No problem, like I said I am used to it now."

Steph pulled up to the police station and parked in the lot across the street. She handed Frank back his keys so he would have a ride home later. They walked into the station and over to the clerk. Steph did not recognize the young kid working the desk this time. She handed over the required forms and signed her required documents and was handed the receipt and on her way. She figured that everyone was probably back at Frank's house exchanging money but she wondered if she should feel sorry that she did not stay to explain what happened. She shrugged her shoulders figuring half the time they don't care if she is okay only who won the pot of money. Making up her mind that she did not care, she walked out of the station and called Lula on her cell to come pick her up.

Lula arrived not even five minutes later. "I was just on my way to get me some chicken when you called. Do you want some? And what happened to your ride?"

"No thanks I just had lunch at my parent's house and I got stranded that is why I called. Do you think you can drop me back at my parent's, I need to see if I can borrow Big Blue?"

Sensing that Steph did not want to talk, Lula just headed over to Steph's parents house. "You know you will tell me later right?"

"Yeah I will stop into the office in the beginning of the week for lunch, my treat." Steph responded.

"Is everything else alright white girl? You don't seem like your normal self today?"

"Yeah Lula I am ok just got a lot of things going on. Thanks for the ride." With that Steph hoped out of the car and headed inside her parents house. She found her mother at the kitchen table with a mound of books scattered around her studying. Steph's mom looked up "I thought you were going to work, is everything okay"?

"Just wanted to see if I could borrow Grandma's car."

"Keys are in the same place as normal. Do I even want to know what happened to your truck?" Her mom asked as she returned to her books.

"No you don't. Thanks" Steph headed out to the garage and hopped into the car. She looked at the last remaining file she had and pointed the car in that direction.

On the way over there she pulled out her cell phone and called Ranger. The phone rang a few times before it was picked up. "Hello"

"uh is Ranger there?"

"Hey Steph its Bobby"

"Oh hi Bobby, I wanted to see how Ranger was doing?"

"We just left the hospital, he defiantly has a concussion. We are heading back to Rangeman now."

"Can you ask him if he is going to feel like still having dinner like planned or we can just postpone it to a later date."

Steph could hear some shuffling around than Ranger was on the phone, "Babe we are still having dinner, don't think a little concussion is going to stop us. Do you mind meeting me at the apartment though, I might need you to drive depending how my head feels"

"Yeah I can meet you there, what time?"

"7:30 should be fine, I am going to push the reservations back a little if that is okay with you?"

"That is fine, I am really sorry about your head. Are you sure you are up to going out tonight?"

"Wasn't your fault and yeah I will be fine. I see you tonight."

Steph looked at the phone realizing that Ranger hung up. I guess that was as close as a goodbye as we was going to get.


	13. Chapter 13

Steph sat outside Harris's house for over a half hour before she worked up the courage to go knock on the door. This guy was bonded out for lower than normal compared to his charges, causing the file to fall in her lap. Harris was at least six feet tall and 250 lbs. She normally would have asked one of the Merry Men for back up, but after Ranger got hurt this morning, she did not want to risk anyone else.

Steph unclipped her stun gun and positioned it in the front of her pants then grabbed her pepper spray to have it close by. Steph knocked on the door two times before she saw the curtain in the front window move. A few moments later, the door in front of her was ripped open, and one of the nastiest men she ever saw stood in front of her.

"Hey, honey, I did not order a girl for tonight, but I think I could have a lot of fun with you," he sneered.

Steph was so repulsed by Harris that she thought she might have thrown up in her mouth a little. Trying to keep some space between them, she explained that she was in fact there because he missed his court date. Harris freaked out and lunged at Steph. Being so much larger than Steph, he had an unfair advantage and knocked her off the steps and to the ground. Not considering the momentum himself, Harris fell forward also and landed on top of Steph, forcing all the air from her lungs. After being momentarily stunned, Steph started to fight back. She took a couple hits to her stomach and legs, but managed to deflect any hits from her face.

Steph started to use some of the techniques that Matt had taught her the other day and punched Harris so hard in the face that she heard his nose shatter, blood squirting everywhere. Harris rolled off her, holding his nose and screaming. Not waiting a second longer, she reached for her stun gun and gave Harris a round of electricity. Just for good measure, she hit him again with the stun gun. Steph looked at Harris and then at the Buick sitting at the curb. Figuring Harris was too large to move on her own, she headed for the car and backed it up and drove up on Harris's front lawn. She pulled as close as she could get to him without running him over. She then opened the backseat doors and propped Harris up against the door frame. After getting his upper body in the car, she then ran back around and pushed his lower body into the door. Making sure his feet were clear of the door, she shut the door and went back around to the other side. Steph straightened Harris out a little more then handcuffed him before taking off to the station. Once at the station, she pulled around back and buzzed for some help. The same young clerk from earlier showed up at the door to help. Steph got Harris into the clerk's station and waited for her receipt. "Where is everyone today? This place is empty."

"Oh, there was a truck on fire a few blocks over, and apparently, they cannot get it under control. The firefighters aren't sure what was used to start the fire. Most of the guys have been over there keeping crowd control for the last few hours."

"Oh, wow."

Steph grabbed the receipt and wheeled around and headed back to her car, trying to keep the smile off her face. She figured she had a good idea whose truck the clerk was speaking of and what started the fire.

Steph finally got home and ran a hot bubble bath. She realized how sore she was from her run in with Harris and hoped that a warm bath would help. She wished she also had time for a nap but knew if she wanted to be on time to meet Ranger, then she better not.

Steph spent over an hour in the tub relaxing, shaving and exfoliating. She finished washing her hair and rinsed off before exiting the tub.

Steph wrapped the towels around her and went to her room to find something to wear while she let the steam out of the bathroom. She had gone shopping almost two months ago with Mary Lou and found some really nice dresses that were nothing like her distraction gear. She pulled out a long black dress that ended just passed her ankles. The dress was made of silk and hugged her curves and accented her features. The dress had inch and a half straps, and the front dipped down to show off some of her cleavage in a very classic appearance. She pulled out matching black FMPs that had only three inch heels to keep with the classic but conservative appearance. Next, Steph headed to her dresser and found a brand new matching set of black lace bra, thong and garter belt she had found at Victoria Secret on her last shopping trip but did not get a chance to wear before tonight. She left everything laying on her bed and headed back towards the bathroom to fix her hair and makeup.

Steph fixed her hair in soft curls that hung down her back and decided to go light on her makeup. She wanted to go understated with her makeup, and keeping it light gave her a fresher appearance. Finished in the bathroom, she headed back into the bedroom to get dressed.

Steph stood in the room looking at her reflection in the mirror. The reflection she saw was way better than she expected. She looked like she was going to a charity event rather than to a simple dinner. She was very happy with her overall appearance and put on her black pea coat that she only used for very fancy occasions, grabbed her clutch, and headed out the door.


	14. Chapter 14

Sorry for the delay, I have a beta now so it might take longer to post plus my work schedule has been hectic. Please note that these characters belong to Janet Evanovich and I am making no profit from them.

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Steph pulled into the Rangeman garage and headed to the elevator. She finger-waved at the camera and proceeded towards the seventh floor. Steph was surprised that she did not feel nervous about the dinner. She figured it was because she knew what to expect, and since it was all for the job, she would just have to play along. Stepping out of the elevator, she knocked softly on the apartment door.

"Come in," she could hear through the door.

She opened the door and came to a halt. Standing a few feet in front of her was Ranger in a fitted black Armani suit. "Wow," she whispered.

Ranger stilled in the middle of fixing his tie when he took in Stephanie's appearance. "Take the coat off. I want to see you," he stated. She removed the pea coat and laid it across the back of the sofa. Ranger made a motion with his hand for Steph to turn around so he could see the whole dress. As Steph turned, Ranger's breath got stuck in his throat, and he barely got out, "Damn, you look beautiful, Babe."

"Thanks. So do you. You know you look handsome."

Ranger was still fiddling with his tie like his fingers were not working correctly. Steph approached Ranger and moved his hands and finished the tie. Ranger checked out her handy work. "Where'd you learn to tie a tie?"

"Growing up in the burg, it was one of the things a mother taught her daughter. This way she could take care of her husband," she responded while rolling her eyes at the absurdity of it.

Ranger reached out for Steph's coat. "Are you ready to go, and are you sure you don't mind driving?"

Steph reached up to touch the back of Ranger's head checking out his bump. "Does it hurt? I'm really sorry you got hurt."

"It's okay. I'll be back to 100% before you know it."

"So what car do I get to drive, and let me tell you now, if anything happens to the car, it is not my fault."

"How about the Porsche? And nothing is going to happen."

Ranger helped Steph back into her coat, and they headed to the garage. They settled into the Porsche and headed out of the garage. Ranger gave Steph directions heading towards the outside of town to the restaurant. Steph pulled into a parking lot and found front row parking. She shook her head and figured it must be because she was driving Ranger's car that she got a good spot. Ranger came around the car and helped Stephanie out and started towards the restaurant. The restaurant was called "Terra Nova" and was still pretty packed for it being after the prime time dinner hour. They were shown to a table in the back of the room. Ranger took Steph's coat and hung it up on the back of the booth; he than proceeded to help Steph slide around to the corner of the booth. Even though the restaurant was still packed, the table in the back gave them plenty of privacy. They could be seen, but none of the other diners would be able to hear their conversation.

Ranger ordered a bottle of red wine for the two to share, and they decided on a sea platter as an appetizer. They shared some small talk while they waited for the food. Steph asked how Julie was doing and if he would be spending Christmas with her. Ranger told Steph that they tried to talk on the phone every other day or would share emails. He explained that it was a suggestion from Julie's therapist. As for Christmas, Julie was supposed to go with Ron and Rachel to Ron's parents house for the week. A short time later, their appetizer arrived and they placed their dinner orders.

The sea platter had calamari with three types of dipping sauces, shrimp tempura and crab cakes. They ate in silence, and a few times Ranger would feed Steph with his fork. The food was so delicious that Steph could not help but moan as she tasted the bursting flavors. By the time they finished with the appetizer, their salads had arrived and then their dinner. Ranger ordered a fresh grilled tilapia that had a mango salsa sauce on top. Steph tried something different from her norm and had a crabmeat stuffed ravioli in a light blush cream sauce.

Halfway through the meal Steph noticed that Ranger was not looking well. He looked a little shaky and was sweating some. "Are you alright? You don't look well," she stated.

Ranger responded, "I'm fine." Steph did not believe him but knew to let well enough alone. They finished their main course, and their plates were removed. Ranger slid out of the booth and came around in front of Stephanie. He got down on one knee and took hold of both her hands.

"Stephanie, Babe, will you marry me? Marry me, not for the job, but because you love me like I love you. Marry me because you want to spend the rest of your life with me."

Steph was speechless. Ranger just threw her for a loop. She did not expect for Ranger to ask her to really marry him.

She was not sure how long she stared at Ranger. She was brought out of her musings when she felt a light tug on her hands.

"Babe, are you going to make me ask you again?"

"What, um, no. I mean, yes, I will marry you."

Ranger slipped the ring on Steph's hand as he pulled her out of her seat and passionately kissed her. The rest of the diners started to applaud as they realized what had just happened. Even though they could not hear Ranger pop the question, they did see Steph nodding her head yes as she responded and Ranger slipping the ring on her ring finger. A few of the diners had their phones out and snapped a few pictures when they recognized that the female was in fact "Trenton's Bombshell Bounty Hunter" and the man was in the papers before when his biological daughter had been kidnapped and he was the owner of Rangeman.

Ranger pulled Steph to sit next to him in the booth. Ranger put one arm around Steph's shoulders and using his other hand, held onto Steph's hand, playing with the ring he just put there. In all the excitement, he noticed that Steph never even looked at the ring. The server came back over asking the couple if they would be celebrating their engagement with any dessert tonight. Steph ordered a five layer chocolate cake while Ranger declined any.

Ranger tried to enjoy watching Steph eat every last bite of the chocolate goodness, but he was still not feeling good. He was hoping that his Babe would be finished soon because he had the feeling he would be sick. He would feel bad if he rushed her through the dessert. Ranger finally paid the bill and helped Steph back into her coat. They headed out of the restaurant receiving a few more congratulations on the way.

Back in the car, Steph turned to Ranger preparing to ask where he wanted to go now, but she could tell that he was still sweating and looked shaky. These were both things out of the norm for Ranger. "Ranger, are you sure you're okay? You're not looking too good."

"Are you trying to back out of this engagement already, Babe? I didn't think you were one that only cared about looks," Ranger responded, trying to make light of the situation.

Steph put the car in reverse and backed out of the parking spot. She figured she would drive around for a little while since Ranger did not say where he wanted her to head. About fifteen minutes into the drive, Ranger spoke out suddenly. "Pull over!"

Steph started to slow and pull towards the side of the road. "Pull over now," Ranger gritted out. She hardly had the car stopped when Ranger wrenched the door open and barely had the seatbelt off and was out of the car. Not sure what just happened, Steph unhooked her seatbelt and got out of the car, heading towards the passenger side. As she rounded the car, she saw Ranger hunched over loosing the dinner and wine he had just consumed. Steph went back to the passenger side door that was still ajar and reached into the glove box for some napkins.

She headed back to Ranger and slowly rubbed up and down on his back trying to console him. It was not everyday that she saw Ranger sick. They normally played the opposite roles. Steph handed Ranger some of the napkins that she had found in the glove box so he could wipe his mouth and face. After a few minutes, he started to move and stand up. He was very shaky in his movements, and Steph helped him back to the car.

Not sure what to say, she got back in the car and pulled back onto the road. She knew they were at least an hour to an hour and a half away from Trenton now since she had just been driving around, and she was not sure Ranger would make it that long. Ranger was in the passenger seat with his head tilted back and eyes closed. Steph, seeing a hotel sign up ahead, made a decision and pulled into the parking lot. "I'll be right back."

She headed into the hotel and got a room for the night. She then went back to the car and helped Ranger out of the car and towards the hotel. Being out of it, it took Ranger a few minutes to realize that they were actually heading into a hotel and were not back at Rangeman. "Babe," he said.

"Just trust me."

Steph got Ranger up to the hotel room and directed him to the bathroom. She turned on the shower to hot and helped Ranger out of his suit. "I'll be back in a few minutes," she said and headed back to the car. She pulled back out of the lot and headed down the way they had come and pulled into a Kmart parking lot. She figured if they were spending the night, they would need a few things. She grabbed a cart and headed in, trying to make it fast. She first grabbed two toothbrushes and some toothpaste, deodorant, and a hairbrush, then she made her way over to the medicine aisle. She was not sure if Ranger was sick due to the concussion or having second thoughts about the marriage. So she picked up a couple stomach aids before heading to the clothing section. She found a pair of Levi's for both of them, and two t-shirts and some undergarments. Steph made her way to the front to check out and grabbed a few bottles of water and Gatorade.

Steph got everything up to the hotel room and went in search of Ranger. He was still in the bathroom, but this time, he had a towel wrapped low around his waist, and he was hung over the toilet losing anything else he might have had left in his stomach. Steph went back to where she dropped the bags and pulled out the pair of boxers and the toothbrush and toothpaste before heading back into the bathroom.

A half hour later, Ranger's stomach seemed to have settled down with the help of some of the medicine, but he was still out of it some. Steph helped him into the bed and then got herself ready for bed. While brushing her own teeth, the light caught on the diamond in the ring, and she took notice for the first time how absolutely beautiful the ring was. It had a platinum band with what had to be at least a two-carat princess cut diamond in the middle with a one-carat princess cut diamond on each side. She finally finished brushing her teeth and headed into bed also.


	15. Chapter 15

Sometime in the middle of the night, Ranger stirred and caused Steph to wake. She rolled over to check if Ranger was okay. He was rubbing his head, so Steph slipped out of bed and went in search of the bags she picked up from the store. She pulled out a bottle of Aleve and water and returned to the bed. "Here take this. It will help," she said as she handed over the items. "Thanks."

They both lay back down and went to sleep. The next time Steph woke, the sun was shinning through the curtains, and it was after nine a.m. Steph was surprised that Ranger was still asleep and figured his concussion was worse than they had thought. She slipped out of bed and headed towards the shower. She made due with the shampoo and conditioner that the hotel provided and then grabbed the brush and hotel hair dryer to try to tame her hair. With the towel wrapped around her, she went back into the bedroom and rummaged for the clothing items she bought for herself and headed back to the bathroom to get dressed.

Steph came back into the room and decided that she better wake Ranger because they still needed to check out before eleven, and she did not know if Ranger would want to shower again. She sat on his side of the bed next to him and nudged him some. He swatted her away. She nudged him again, a little harder this time. This time he rolled away from her. Finally figuring that being subtle was not working, she started to speak, "Hey, if you get up, I'll let you have some twigs and bark for breakfast."

She could barely hear the mumbling response. "Don't want twigs and bark."

"Okay, but you need to get up and take a shower."

Ranger pulled himself up out of bed and started to head towards the bathroom. He stopped, turned around, and took in the room. "Babe, this is not my apartment."

"Yeah, I know that."

"Where are we? And how did we get here?"

"A hotel, and I drove us here. Now go get a shower. I'm going to go order breakfast."

Ranger got in the shower, and Steph laid out his clothes that she bought on the bed. She then picked up the phone and ordered a variety of foods for breakfast since she was not sure what Ranger would want.

Ranger came out of the bathroom wearing the pair of blue Levis and a black t-shirt. He took in the room again. "Where did these clothes come from?" he asked Steph as he came to see the cart food that had been delivered. "I bought them," she responded around a bite of her chocolate chip pancakes. She was really enjoying using these short to the point answers. Ranger sat down next to her and started to load his plate with a little bit of everything except the fruit and healthy items.

"You sure you're feeling okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, why?" was the response as he continued to eat.

"No reason."

They finished breakfast and packed up their few items in the complementary bags provided by the hotel and headed to the lobby to checkout. Walking out to the car, Steph asked if Ranger was okay to drive. He gave her a confused look asking, "Why wouldn't I be?"

"No reason."

"Babe, you have been saying that a lot this morning."

Steph shrugged in response and slid into the passenger seat. Ranger took in his surroundings, started the car and headed towards Trenton. An hour later, he turned to Steph. "Where am I dropping you off at, Babe?"

"My apartment is fine."

They pulled up to the curb of her apartment building; not knowing why Ranger was acting so strange after proposing during dinner, she just grabbed her stuff out of the back seat. She leaned back into the car and said, "I guess I'll see you at work on Monday."

Steph entered her apartment as Ranger headed back to Rangeman. She decided that she would watch some Sunday afternoon cartoons and just spend the day relaxing. She did not make it through two whole episodes of Tom and Jerry before falling asleep on the couch.

Ranger pulled into the garage, grabbed his bag from the backseat, and headed up to the seventh floor apartment. He dropped his belongings off and headed back to the fifth floor to check out how everything was running in the Communication room. Tank saw Ranger step off the elevator onto the floor and headed over to see how dinner went.

"Rangeman, how did dinner go?"

"When?"

"Last night, you know with Bomber? Did you ask her?"

Ranger had a confused look on his face. "Did I ask her what? You're not making sense."

"Are you seriously going to make me spell it out for you. How did the marriage proposal go?"

"Huh, who is getting married?"

"You okay, Ranger? Do you really not have any idea what I'm talking about?"

"No, between you and Steph this morning, no one is making much sense."

"How about you head to your office, and I'll have Bobby and Lester meet us in there."

Meanwhile, Steph woke up to the constant ringing of her phone. Apparently, the burg heard about her truck catching on fire yesterday and wanted details. Figuring that she was not going to have any quiet if she stayed in her apartment, she called her dad for a ride to pick up the Buick from Rangeman.

Her dad dropped her off with no questions asked. He appeared to be grateful to get out of the house for a little while. Steph entered the garage and headed right to the Buick. She started the car, kicked on the heater, and headed for the highway.

With no destination in mind, she drove until she pulled into the parking lot near the Point Pleasant boardwalk. The beach and boardwalk were deserted this time of year, but she still loved to sit and watch the waves. Steph grabbed a blanket out of the trunk of the car. She'd added the old blanket to the car months ago when she had last borrowed it. She figured with her luck she would need it on the dirtier skips or when she ended up covered in food.

She wrapped herself in the blanket and sat about twenty feet away from the surf. She sat out there watching the waves and enjoying the quiet. She used this time to think about the case she was working on, her pending wedding with Ranger and up coming trip to Miami to help Julie. She had a lot going on in such a short time. She needed time to adjust to the changes.

Back at Rangeman:

Tank called Lester and Bobby to Ranger's office. He explained the previous conversation that he had with Ranger and the fact he appeared not to remember certain events. Bobby checked Ranger over and stated that nothing appeared to be out of the norm with the exception of the memory loss. Bobby stated that with the degree of Ranger's concussion, it is not unusual for the patient to forget certain events or to even get sick hours after the injury.

The guys then spent the next half hour filling Ranger in on the case and the fact he had been planning to ask Bomber to marry him last night and that they did not return home after dinner the previous evening. Not being able to remember if he did in fact ask Steph to marry him, he decided he better call her. Ranger tried to call but didn't receive an answer, and the voicemail message center appeared to be full. He decided that he should drive by to check on Steph himself. The guys were not sure if Ranger was still experiencing any other side effects from the concussion and decided that Tank would drive Ranger to the apartment building to be on the safe side.

Ranger and Tank pulled up to the apartment building and parked in the front row. They took notice that there was a police cruiser parked at the curb. They headed up the stairs to the second floor and approached Stephanie's apartment. As they came closer to the door, they noticed that the door was open and two uniform officers were inside. Ranger and Tank entered the apartment and inquired about the nature of their presence.

The officers informed them that Steph's truck was found engulfed in flames, and due to the fact that an unknown accelerant was used, the fire burned so hot that it took a while to get under control, and they could not identify whether Stephanie was in fact in the vehicle at the time of the fire. So the officers were sent to see if anyone was home or if anyone had seen Stephanie to confirm that she was not in the vehicle.

Ranger could not believe what he was hearing, and sometime during the conversation, he took a seat on the couch. "Where was the truck found?" he asked.

The younger of the two officers rambled off the name and address of Stephanie's skip's house. He recalled that being one of the skips she had on her list to go after yesterday. Figuring she did not catch him yesterday, he thought she must have gone back there today by herself.

Tank had stepped into the hallway to call the communication room. He asked Hal to check the status of all Steph's trackers and report their locations. Tank could hear the clicking of the keys. A few moments later, Hal started to report, "The one on her truck is reading her apartment parking lot. It says it has been in the same spot for four days now. The lipstick tracker is reading in her apartment, and the pen is reading from Point Pleasant." Tank thanked him and headed back into the room.

Tank spoke with Ranger for a few moments and then turned back to the officers. "When was Stephanie's truck found?" The officer looked down at his pad that was scribbled with notes and remarked, "Yesterday afternoon around 1:45 p.m." Tank blew out a sign of relief and informed the officers that Stephanie was seen last night and again a few hours ago. The officers thanked them for their help and left.

Ranger looked towards Tank and asked him to take him to Point Pleasant. That was the only other clue they had to where Steph really might be.


	16. Chapter 16

Tank pulled the truck into a spot near Stephanie's Buick. He looked over at Ranger, waiting for an indication of what he would like him to do. Ranger and Tank got out of the truck and headed towards the boardwalk. They walked down the strip a little ways when they finally saw what appeared to be a person wrapped in a cocoon on the beach. Ranger nodded at Tank that he would take it from here and started out across the beach.

Steph could feel the tingling in the back of her neck and knew that Ranger was near by. She was not sure how to react to him. He proposes to her for real and then acts like nothing has happened. Ranger sat down next to Stephanie, but she kept her attention on the waves and did not acknowledge him. After about ten minutes of silence, she was about to speak when Ranger pulled the blanket from around Steph and pulled her into his lap and then wrapped them both in the blanket with his arms circling her waist. "Babe, you are like ice. How long have you been out here?"

Steph shrugged her shoulders, "Don't know. What time is it?"

"It's a little after four."

"I guess a couple hours then."

"Is everything all right?" Ranger asked.

"Yeah. Just wanted some quiet time, and I love to watch the waves," she remarked.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" Ranger asked.

"You just did, but you can ask another one," she responded with a little laughter in her voice.

"I'm a little hazy on the details of yesterday. Did we go out to dinner?"

"Yeah, we did."

"Okay. My next question is going to be a little more difficult. Did we happen to get engaged?"

"You really don't remember dinner or proposing last night?"

Ranger could feel Stephanie tense up during her response. She tried to pull away from him, but he tightened his arms around her more.

"Babe, wait and hear me out. Bobby said that apparently short-term memory loss or even being sick has been associated with concussions."

"Well, then I guess you fit into both those categories."

"Did I get sick also?"

"Yeah, on the side of the road after dinner, and you could barely stand moving, which is why we ended up at the hotel for the night."

"Oh, thank you for taking care of me last night."

"Ranger, it wasn't a problem considering how many times you've taken care of me over the years."

Ranger asked Steph, "Do you think I could catch a ride with you back to Trenton? Tank dropped me off."

"If you don't think riding in the Buick will hurt your image, that's fine. But I have a question first. Why did you come out here? Did something happen?"

"I went to talk to you at your apartment, and the police were there."

"Please tell me that there is not a dead body in my apartment or that it was fire bombed again?"

"No, they were looking for you because apparently your truck was on fire, and they weren't sure if you were in the vehicle when it happened."

"Oh, that was yesterday that my truck caught on fire. But it was not my fault! My skip was working on an experiment, and the reaction happened faster than he expected."

"Only you, Babe."

A short time later, they got up and brushed the sand from their clothes and headed back to the car. Steph drove back to Trenton, dropping Ranger off in front of Rangeman with the promise she would see him tomorrow. Before exiting the car, Ranger leaned over and gave Steph a few soft kisses. Before Steph could react, Ranger was out of the seat and heading into the building.


	17. Chapter 17

Steph returned to the office the next day and headed to her cubicle. She looked at the mess that had accumulated in the past few days. She let out a sigh, dropped her bag into the top drawer and started to get to work. Not even five minutes into working Lester stopped by and said, "So I hear congratulations are in order."

"Huh, what, why?"

"On your engagement, can I see the ring?" He replied back as he grabbed her left hand off the desk to admire the ring. "Ranger has nice taste." Lester stayed a few more minutes before he returned to work.

Steph started getting back into working when Ram stopped by. This continued on for over an hour. Every few minutes another Merry Man would stop by to offer congrates and check out the bling. She figured if one more man grabbed her arm she would have to go to the hospital to have it put back in place.

Finally having enough of all the interruptions she jumped up when she saw Hector passing by the office. "Hector, can you do me a favor?"

"Si"

"Can you get me a lap top and a printer set up in conference room 3."

"Sí puedo hacer eso ahora" "Yes, I can do that now"

"Thanks I will be in there in a few minutes." Steph stacked up her files and grabbed a few handfuls and headed to the conference room. She than headed to her desk again and grabbed the remaining few items that were still scattered about. Once back in the conference room she watched Hector finish hooking up the computer and printer. Since she had the only table in the room moved out last week she set up sitting right in the middle of the room. The first thing she did was print out a sign to hang on the outside of the conference room door.

"Do not disturb or risk dismemberment"

Once that was finished she got to work. She worked through the next two hours running searches. While the searches were running she would use the down time to look over the case files she had already found connections between and had added any new connections on the walls. She would occasionally find another piece of information to connect some of the individuals or move a few pieces around to another location.

She was deep in though when Ranger came into the room. "Babe, I think it is considered harassment to threaten my men with dismemberment."

"Yeah well better them then me, my arm was almost dislocated from my body. And what did you do, run a little ad on our engagement? The whole freaking company knows."

"Well I didn't but this might explain how everyone seems to know." He stated handing her the front page of the Trenton Times. On the front page it read:

"Carlos Manoso, CEO of Rangeman and Trenton's own Bombshell Bounty Hunter, Stephanie Plum engaged to be married"

"_Mr. Manoso, CEO of Rangeman a security company in Trenton was in the news a little over a year ago when Edward Scrog impersonated and kidnapped his daughter. Stephanie Plum has also had her own time in the news over the past few years for different reasons. Ms. Plum has been reported to be a main contributor to the recovery of Mr. Manoso's daughter. She was also coined with the nickname Bombshell Bounty hunter after being involved with the fire at Stiva's Funeral Home._

_We would like to announce that witnesses report the proposal of Ms. Plum and Mr. Manoso Saturday night at Terra Nova."_

The story continued but Steph had read enough. She did not think that this would hit the newspaper or that someone might capture a picture of the two of them mid-proposal.

"That explains a lot" she remarked as she handed the paper back to Ranger. Steph sat back down on the floor in front of the laptop and started working on reading the files.

"So I figured since it was in the newspaper we will have to go to dinner at your parent's tonight."

Steph looked up pondering that thought. She did not think there would be a day that Ranger actually offered to go to her parents for dinner. "Yeah probably a good idea, I probably already have ten calls from my mother at home on the answer machine." She looked back down to her reading.

"I was looking over some locations and details of where to hold the reception for security purposes." Ranger continued. "uh huh that is nice."

"I figured we could use the Trenton Marriott for both the ceremony and the reception, is that okay with you?"

"uh huh that would be fine" she responded again still not looking up from her paper.

"I was also thinking of doing it as a black tie event."

"That would be nice."

"Glad you agree so the guys will all wear white tuxes and suits and all the ladies including you will wear black gowns" Ranger responded as he watched Steph for a response. He could tell that he lost her after mentioning her parents for dinner. Steph jumped up from the floor saying, "YES" and heading towards the far wall again.

"Babe so you don't mind wearing a black dress?"

"Huh what are you talking about? A black dress for what?"

"Babe I was discussing wedding details with you."

"Oh sorry, I was sort of thinking and was rereading this file. What were you saying now? I promise my undivided attention." She responded while biting her lip and turning to glance at the wall for a moment before turning back towards Ranger.

Ranger realizing that he still really did not have her attention and decided to just let her get back to work. "How about we talk about it on the way to your parent's for dinner tonight? Do you want to leave from here or do you need to head back to your apartment first?"

"Oh okay, yeah I need to go back, I will also pick up Rex to take back with me. Thanks for watching him last night", and with that she turned back to the wall and started connecting more items together.

Later that evening Steph found herself on her way to her parent's for dinner with Ranger. He told her about his thought of holding the ceremony and reception at the hotel. Also that he called and they do have a few days available in the next month's worth of time so they could still have time to reserve the hotel. He stated it would be easier to handle the security and this way no one would have to worry about traveling between the church and a hall. He told her that the hotel would prepare the food and take care of the table linens, centerpieces and decorations. Steph told Ranger that would be fine, the less she had to plan or that her mother got her hands on the better.

They pulled up to her parent's house and Ranger came around the car and helped her out. "Do we really have to do this?" She asked. Ranger responded by pulling her into a hug and dropping a kiss on her forehead before he started propelling her towards the house where her mother and grandmother stood.

"Oh Stephanie, and Carlos what a nice surprise. Please come in." Mrs. Plum said. Steph looked at her mother than to her grandmother. She had never seen her mother like this and was starting to wonder if she was a pod person when her grandmother made a hand jester indicating that her mother had been drinking. Steph figured that explained everything.

Dinner when went off without too much of a big to-do. Grandma was excited about having the bounty hunter with the impressive package in the family and dad keep his head down like any other night and shoveled the food into his mouth. Mrs. Plum tried to start planning a date, the church and the VFW hall when Ranger spoke up and informed Mrs. Plum that due to security reasons Steph and he had discussed and decide that they would make all the arrangements for the wedding. Mrs. Plum excused herself after that remark and came back to the table with a full bottle of wine. After a few glasses of wine and the remark that they do not want a long engagement Mrs. Plum seemed satisfied.

Shortly after dessert Steph and Ranger where back in the car heading back to her apartment. Ranger followed her into the elevator and to her apartment. Taking her keys from her hand he went ahead of her and checked out the apartment. Coming back he grabbed her hand and pulled her into the room. "Well that went well. At the rate my mother was hitting that wine she is going to have a nice hangover tomorrow." Steph remarked as they both took a seat on the couch.

They watched TV for a little while before Ranger headed back to Rangeman or where ever he calls home. Steph climbed into bed after setting the alarm and was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

The next morning started early for Steph. After showering and feeding Rex she headed to the Tasty Pastry for a dozen donuts and than stopped in at the bond office. Lula was not in yet so she handed her receipts for all the skips she brought in on Saturday to Connie. Connie starred at Steph for a second before jumping up and coming around the desk and grabbing her left hand. "Let me see this ring, I can not believe you did not tell us that you and Batman got engaged. I did not know you were even dating."

Before Steph could respond Lula came bustling in the front door raving about "white girl better get her ass in the office today" she came to a halt when she saw Steph and Connie standing there. She rushed over to Steph and ripped her hand out of Connie's grasp.

"Shit white girl that thing is huge, not that I be expecting anything less from Batman you know. But I am still mad you did not call me and let me know. I had to hear about it in the newspaper like everyone else. Here I was thinking we were friends."

"Lula I'm sorry I did not call. Everything happened so fast you know."

Connie moved back to sit behind the desk and Lula and Steph sat on the couch all catching up and eating donuts.

Connie asks "so what about supercop? Are you really done with him? You are not going to be backing out of marrying Ranger are you?"

"Connie, Joe and I have not been together for over five months now. And I am not backing out of marrying Ranger. We are setting a date before the end of next month."

"OMG" both Connie and Lula said at the same time followed by "your pregnant with the Batbaby aren't you?"

"What, no I am not pregnant okay. Look I have to get to work, Connie do you have any files for me?"

Connie handed over three files along with the checks for the five skips. She explained that one of the Merry men dropped off one of her slips yesterday with those from Rangeman.

Steph headed to the office. She worked on her casework, took lunch and worked out at the Frustration Center. She talked with Matt some and they decided to get lunch the next day to try to get to know each other better. Steph also asked Matt to look into places similar to his in Miami so she could still have a place to go while she was away.


End file.
